December 6, 2002—The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has outlined for the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) possible steps to take to address the health affects of hexavalent chromium, also known as HexChrom.
More than eighty years ago, researchers first observed that workers in the German chrome ore industry developed lung cancer more frequently than the rest of the population. Since then, many studies have shown that people who work around industrial processes using chromium have higher-than-normal rates of cancers. US industry has used chromium for more than one hundred years, and today the element is a primary contaminant at over half of all Superfund hazardous waste sites.
In its comments to OSHA, ASSE noted that it recognizes the necessity of lowering the existing permissible exposure limits for HexChrom, but the society has not made a determination as to what level would be appropriate. However, ASSE notes that as many as 34 percent of workers could contract lung cancer if exposed to HexChrom at OSHA’s current exposure limit for eight hours a day for forty-five years, according to a study conducted for OSHA in 1995.
In addition to the long-term health effects and carcinogenicity of this substance, dermatological problems are common among construction and cement industry workers exposed to HexChrom through handling of materials containing the chemical.
The full copy of ASSE’s November 20th letter to OSHA can be found on ASSE’s Web site under government affairs.
