11/23/2023 0 Comments Chromium 6 in drinking water![]() Last February, Governor Cuomo launched a Water Quality Rapid Response Team on Long Island, “to swiftly address water quality issues across the state and develop new policies, programs, and technologies to ensure clean water for all New Yorkers.” Enforceable limits in those states were thwarted, according to EWG, by political intervention on behalf of business interests. New Jersey and North Carolina have also attempted to act on research showing a cancer link, and have set a relatively low non-enforceable public health goal of 0.06 ppb for chromium-6. (According to this formula, the current EPA threshold of 100 ppb results in a “5,000 in a million” risk.) After intense industry lobbying, an enforceable limit (MCL) for chromium-6 of 10 ppb-“500 in a million”-was established in 2014. In 2010 California established a non-enforceable public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion in tap water which, based on recent science, their researchers believed to pose a “one in a million” risk over 70 years of consumption. Without federal regulation of chromium-6 in drinking water, some states have attempted to impose their own limits. Photo: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Welders have increased incidences of lung cancers and other respiratory diseases. The goal is to generate as little hexavalent chromium as possible. Welding in an enclosed chamber to collect fumes for analysis. Chromium-6 was found in over 75 percent of them. ![]() From 2013 to 2015-still in the testing phase-the EPA had water suppliers take more than 60,000 samples. They then planned and launched a series of nationwide drinking-water tests to assess the scope of the contamination and determine the need for new regulations. (See EWG’s interactive map for test results.)Īfter conducting its own study, the EPA acknowledged in 2010 that chromium-6 may be a human carcinogen. If, as EWG holds, the “safe” threshold is barely detectable, the people of Norman, Oklahoma, with a finding of almost 40 ppb, turn on their taps and get hot and cold running poison. Now, a new report from the watchdog Environmental Working Group (EWG) presents scientific evidence supporting their belief that even a tiny amount of chromium-6 in drinking water poses a significant health threat.īy some estimates, more than 200 million Americans (in all 50 states) are drinking tap water contaminated with chromium-6. Thus it strictly regulates contact and inhalation by workers. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has long asserted that chromium-6 in the workplace causes cancer and many other ailments. This limit works under the assumption that the entire amount could be the dangerous chromium-6. Since 1992, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been enforcing a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 100 parts per billion (ppb) for total chromium (chromium-3 plus chromium-6) in drinking water. Both reported that chromium levels were “undetectable” in their products because of aggressive filtering (Poland Spring) or vapor distillation (SmartWater). We contacted Poland Spring, and Glaceau, maker of SmartWater. Manufacturers will provide specific information. Sustainable Saturday won’t be encouraging plastic water bottles except as a last resort, but here is what you need to know:īottled water is regulated by the FDA, which has adopted the EPA’s interim “safety level” of 100 ppb for total chromium. ![]() Unregulated contaminants and bottled water Because of its many chemical and industrial uses, it frequently gets into the air, soil, and groundwater as a poisonous industrial byproduct. It’s found in most vitamin and mineral supplements, often listed simply as “chromium.” It even took its turn as an alleged miracle weight-loss supplement.Ĭhromium-6, or hexavalent chromium, also exists in nature, but is a known carcinogen that wreaks havoc on human health. The heavy metal chromium-odorless and colorless in water-exists in nature in two forms.Ĭhromium-3, or trivalent chromium, is an essential element in human nutrition. You’d think as well that attention brought by the whopping settlement and the film must have led to quick, decisive government action to limit chromium-6 in drinking water. By 2009 the “plume” of contamination was spreading, and in 2010 PG&E began a program of either buying out residences and businesses, or providing them with clean drinking water. So, you’d think that PG&E would follow its 1996 payout with an immediate cleanup of the toxic chromium-6 that caused the trouble. It’s a terrific and true American story, and it made a great, root-for-the-little-guy movie. Photo: Eva Rinaldi via Wikimedia Commonsīrockovich, a struggling single mom, may have lacked a law degree (and a blouse adequate to cover her perky bosoms), but she had more than enough brains, compassion and grit to track down the source of the poison in Hinckley, and hold PG&E accountable.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |