My understanding is, the danger with Beta emitters is if they are broken up into dust, and you breathe the dust in (or eat/drink it) then you are toast, as your

My understanding is, the danger with Beta emitters is if they are broken up into dust, and you breathe the dust in (or eat/drink it) then you are toast, as your lungs and internal organs get a small, but continuous bombardment of Beta particles which will eventually give you cancer. If you are contaminated internally, with radioactive dust then there is no way to fix that.