• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2001

This study was performed to evaluate chromium in air and chromium concentrations in whole blood and urine of workers at chrome plating factories, and to determine the correlation between environmental and biological chromium levels. This study involved 29 workers as study group and 24 undergraduate students as control group. The geometric means(GM) of airborne hexavalent chromium and total chromium concentrations in the plating factories were 3.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥ and 10.8 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥, respectively. Hexavalent chromium levels in two of total 29 measurements exceeded the korean occupational exposure limit and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Threshold Limit Value(ACGIH-TLV) of 50$\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥. Only one sample for total chromium exceeded the Korea occupational exposure limits, the ACGIH-TLV, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Recommended Exposure Limits(NIOSH-REL) of 500 $\mu\textrm{g}$/㎥. The GM of chromium concentrations in blood and urine of workers exposed to chromium were 8.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L and 11.9 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L. The GM of chromium concentrations in blood and urine of workers exposed to chromium were 8.4 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L and 11.9 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L, respectively, whereas the chromium concentrations in blood and urine of the controls were 1.6 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L and 3.8 $\mu\textrm{g}$/L, respectively. There were statistically significant differences of blood and urine concentrations between study group and control group (p<0.01). The chromium concentrations in urine were most highly related to hexavalent chromium, concentration in air(r=0.642, p<0.01). Also, there was a relatively high correlation between the hexavalent chromium concentrations in air and chromium concentrations in whole blood(r=0.557, p<0.05). These results indicate that whole-blood chromium with urinary chromium could be an indicator of chromium body burden caused by exposure to chromic acid mist in plating operation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.898-907
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• 2005

Chromium has emerged as an essential trace mineral in nutrition. However, it readily causes toxicity because of slightly excessive dose and/or form of chromium supplement. Therefore, developing a noble form of chromium supplement which is capable of not only an increased availability but also a reduced toxicity has been a critical issue in chromium nutrition. Chromium-methionine chelate has been, so far, one of the latest developments in its kind. Although not much information is available for the chromium-methionine chelate, especially in view of animal performances upon dietary supplementation, several studies indicated chromium methionine chelate could be effective to improve meat quality by increasing muscle mass but decreasing body fat. Highly-graded beef was produced by dietary chromium methionine supplementation during fattening stage of Korean native steers. Body muscle was increased in replace of decreasing body fat in both pig and rat that were dietary supplemented with chromium methionine chelate. However, a pig farm study did not show any significant improvement of body gain upon supplementation of chromium methionine. Immune responses of pig and rat were not always dependent upon chromium form but were varied by species. These results suggest there could be a different mode of responses due to species as well as onset time of dietary supplementation of chromium methionine. It is still early to conclude the bio-efficacy of chromium methionine chelate presumably due to its recent appearance into the field. But the chelate is certainly worth more application to animal since it certainly reduced the application level of dietary chromium.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.223-234
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• 2000

Objective - To evaluate the usefulness of chromium in erythrocytes as a biological marker of exposure to hexavalent chromium in chromate producers and chrome platers Methods - Blood and urine samples were ramdomly obtained from chromate producers (n=34) and chrome platers (n=35), and non-exposed workers (n=75), chromium level in erythrocytes and plasma, and urine were measured. Different chromium exposure workers were assessed through measurements of airborne hexavalent chromium concentrations using a personal air sampler. Linear associations between variables were evaluated with correlation analysis. Results - The chromate producers had mean chromium levels in erythrocytes five fold as higher than the chrome platers, and fifteen fold higher than non-exposed group. Among the chromium exposed workers, airborne hexavalent chromium was positively and strongly correlated with in erythrocytes (r=0.689, p<0.01), and erythrocytes chromium was inversely correlated with hematocrit (r=-0.441, p<0.01), hemoglobin (r=-0.465, p<0.01) and the number of red blood cells (r=-0.28, p<0.05). Conclusions - In conclusion, this study suggests that chromium in erythrocytes is a good indicator of the chromium body burden caused by exposure to hexavalent chromium.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2007

Hexavalent chromium-contaminated soils are encounted at many unregulated discharge and improper handling of wastes from electroplating, leather tanning, steelmaking, corrosion control, and wood preservation industries. Contamination of hexavalent chromium in the soil is a major concern because of its toxicity and threat to human life and environment. Current technologies for hexavalent chromium-contaminated soil remediation are usually costly and/or cannot permanently prohibit the toxic element from entering into the biosphere. Thus, as an alternative technique, immobilization is seen as a cost-effective and promising remediation technology that may reduce the leachable potential of hexavalent chromium. The purpose of this paper is to develope an immobilization technique for the formation of the geochemically stabilized hexavalent chromium-contaminated soil from the reactions of labile soil hexavalent chromium forms with the added soluble phosphate and chromium reducing agent. From the liquid phase experiment, reaction order of chromium reducing agent, soluble phosphate, alkali solution shows the best removal efficiency of 95%. In addition, actual soil phase experiment demonstrates up to 97.9% removal efficiency with 1:1 molar ratio of chromium reducing agent and soluble phosphate. These results provide evidence for the potential use of soluble phosphate and chromium reducing agent for the hexavalent chromium-contaminated soil remediation.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.497-501
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• 2007

The objective of the study is to determine the contents of total chromium, water-soluble chromium and hexavalent chromium in cements and concretes specimens taken from manufacturing or construction sites. Chromate is an allergen that is widespread in the environment and is richly contained in cements. Metals were extracted with microwave oven and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometer. Hexavalent chromium was analysed by ion chromatography. The concentrations of total chromium, water-soluble chromium and hexavalent chromium in cements were $36.02{\sim}108.01,\;15.95{\sim}89.01\;and\;26.77{\sim}89.61\;mg/kg$, respectively. The concentrations of hexavalent chromium in cements were higher than 2 mg/kg, a maximum value recommended in Northern European Countries. The concentrations of total chromium, water-soluble chromium and hexavalent chromium in concretes were $17.44{\sim}76.25,\;0.98{\sim}17.71\;and\;ND{\sim}24.13\;mg/kg$, respectively. Especially Hexavalent chromium was detected only from concrete specimens from construction sites. It is oxidized or reduced status by environmental condition or surrounding materials.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2004

Hard chromium coating technology using hexavalent chromium bath is widely used in various industries. Because of the serious health and environmental problems of hexavalent chromium, many attempts to alternate the hexavalent chromium plating have been made over 50 years. Trivalent chromium plating is one of the challengeable technologies to alternate hexavalent chromium plating. It is relatively none-toxic. Although some papers have described hard chromium coatings produced from trivalent chromium solution, it has limited the industrialization because of chemical and electrochemical problems of trivalent chromium ions. This paper introduces a number of factors for successful trivalent chromium plating, to give a some information about trivalent chromium process.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 1997

This experiment was conducted with total 960 brown layers, consisted of 8 treatment to investigate the effects of dietary chromium as chromium picolinate on egg production, egg quality, nutrient utilizability, serum traits and mortality in brown layers. Layers were fed diets with two levels of dietary protein (14% and 16%) and supplemented with 0, 200, 400, 800 ppb/kg of chromium as chromium picolinate, respectively. The highest egg production, egg weight and egg mass were found in 800 ppb chromium picolinate supplementation group with high protein level (16%) (p < 0.05). Although there was no significant difference, layers receiving 400 ppb of chromium picolinate with high protein (16%) represented the lowest broken eggs. The utilization of energy, dry matter and crude protein of 400 ppb chromium picolinate group with low protein level (14%) were significantly higher than those of control or other chromium picolinate group (p < 0.05). 400 ppb chromium picolinate with low protein level (14%) showed the lowest serum glucose concentration. But serum glucose concentrations in all treatments showed no significant differences. Present date revealed that the lowest serum cholesterol concentration of layers was found at 400 ppb chromium picolinate group with high protein level (16%) (p < 0.05). Crude protein content in yolk was significantly higher in eggs of layers received 800 ppb chromium picolinate and the lowest in eggs from layers received 400 ppb chromium picolinate among chromium picolinate levels (p < 0.05). Mortality was remarkably decreased by chromium picolinate supplementation and the lowest mortality value was found in layres receiving 800 ppb chromium picolinate with high protein level.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2005

There is now a growing concern about the possible toxicity of heavy metals in cosmetics. Heavy metals can be used as cosmetic ingredients or may be present as low level impurities in some of the raw materials. Chromium derivatives are used as pigments in cosmetics. Chromium is essential and toxic trace elements. Chromium may cause skin allergy. However, the regulations related to cosmetic products give no limit values for Chromium. Hexavalent chromium is significantly more toxic than trivalent chromium. Hexavalent chromium may present a carcinogenic risk at high concentrations. Therefore, it is important to consider oxidation state of chromium when analyze chromium. The purpose of this study is to determine the concentrations of water-soluble trivalent and hexavalent chromium in samples of makeup products, and to assess the safety of cosmetics on the basis of animal sensitization tests using guinea pig. The present study of chromium in 48 makeup products of 12 manufacturers provides a basis for assessing safety of makeup products. Water-soluble hexavalent chromium was not detected in any product. Water-soluble trivalent chromium was detected in only 9 eye shadows out of 48 makeup products, and could not be quantified 3 out of 9 eye shadows. The highest level of water-soluble trivalent chromium was about 10 mg/kg in spite of 90,000 mg/kg of total chromium. The results of animal sensitization tests show that 200 mg/kg of trivalent chromium and 5 mg/kg of hexavalent chromium have no harmful effect. No cross-reaction among these metals was found. Accordingly, the concentrations of water-soluble chromium in makeup products seemed to be safe. The overall results indicate that chromium in cosmetics probably have no significant toxicological effects. However, It is necessary to set guidelines on the maximum permissible concentration of water-soluble chromium in cosmetics.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.29-46
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• 1987

To study hexavalent chromium effects on mitochondrial electron transport, the activities of electron transport enzymes and conformational change of mitochondria treated with $40{\mu}M$ of sodium dichromate ($Na_{2}Cr_{2}O_{7}\;2H_{2}O$) were investigated. And so were those of liver mitochondria isolated from mouse intraperitoneally injected with sodium dichromate, 40mg per kg body weight. On both treatment with chromium(VI), the activities of electron transfer enzymes (Complex I and IV) were increased to some extent and the ultrastructural transformation of mitochondria from a condensed to an orthodox conformation was inhibited under State IV respiration. These results represent' inhibitory effect of hexavalent chromium on electron transport without inhibiting electron transfer enzymes (Complex I and IV) in mitochondria. On intraperitoneal treatment with hexavalent chromium as sodium dichromate and trivalent chromium as chromic chloride, containing 37.5 mg of chromium per kg body weight, respectively, the activities of electron transfer enzymes of liver isolated from mouse with chromium(VI) was reduced, but that with chromium(III) was not affected. And with chromium(VI), all mice after 12 hours of treatment died, only after 6 hours survived. With chromium(III), however, all survived. This indicates that hexavalent chromium is more toxic than trivalent chromiumin mouse liver.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2001

The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between ambient hexavalent chromium concentration and the concentration of the chromium in whole blood, plasma, erythrocytes, and its urinary excretion of male rats after inhalation exposure of sodium chromate during 1, 2, and 3 weeks. 1. Differences of mean chromium concentration in urine, whole blood, erythrocytes, and plasma of male rats exposed to sodium chromate by exposure level were statistically significance, respectively. 2. At low and high exposure groups, differences of mean chromium concentration in urine, whole blood, erythrocytes, and plasma of male rats by duration of inhalation exposure were statistically significance, respectively. 3. Ratio of whole blood chromium to plasma chromium increased with the increased duration of inhalation exposure of sodium chromate. 4. Ambient hexavalent chromium was positively and strongly correlated with in erythrocyte chromium, and also erythrocyte chromium was strongly correlated with in whole blood chromium. In conclusion, this study showed that chromium in erythrocyte increased with the increased exposure level and exposure duration, therefore this study suggests that chromium in erythrocytes is a good biological exposure index of the internal dose from exposure to soluble hexavalent chromium compound.