Chromium, Cancer, and the CIA

[Donnachaidh]

http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=432

CONTROVERSY IS sure to follow the report two weeks ago that drinking water throughout the country is contaminated with traces of hexavalent chromium, the cancer-causing chemical made famous by Erin Brockovich. Questions will be raised about the accuracy of the measurements, and even more about whether small amounts are dangerous. These are questions that have to be taken seriously—it’s not easy to measure very low concentrations of this material, and the toxicity of industrial chemicals is a perennial subject of contention.

But things are not always what they seem in these debates. The appearance of scientific uncertainty can be used to ward off regulation of toxic substances, so money and influence are applied to create artificial disagreement. There is by now a long history of such fabrications—as one tobacco executive famously declared, “Doubt is our product.”

On the chromium issue, environmentalists point to a 1997 Chinese study that minimized the toxicity of that chemical. After evidence emerged that consultants working for American corporations had influenced its findings, the paper was retracted by the journal where it had been published. But that was only one example of the slanting of chromium science. The story goes much farther back—and it takes an astonishing twist that leads behind the curtains of history’s center stage.

News of a connection between chromium and cancer first emerged in the 1930s. Mutual Chemical Company, the largest American producer of the metal, was concerned, but its Baltimore plant manager counseled the avoidance of controversy. Lung cancer among employees, he advised confidentially in 1938, occurred at “many times the incidence in the general public.”

More at the link --

[glinda]

1. Recent analysis of study of over 30 pet foods all levels of brands show alarming

amount of chromium also. Vets been complaining of huge cancer increases in pets.

http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/heavy-metal-pet-food-testing-paper-published.html

[jbnow]

2. Well if it helps to know

EPA accuses chromium industry of withholding lung cancer study

EPA filed a complaint under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) against the world's largest producer of chromium chemicals for failing to inform the agency of findings from an epidemiological study showing a "substantial risk" of injury to health among workers exposed to hexavalent chromium (CrVI). The September 2, 2010 notice alleges that Elementis Chromium failed or refused to submit to EPA a study conducted for an industry trade group that showed evidence of excess lung cancer risk among workers in chromium production facilities. Exposed workers included those employed at Elementis Chromium's plants in Castle Hayne, NC and Corpus Christi, TX.

This just goes back to a violation that they say started in 2002 but we have to start somewhere to get anywhere

It wasn't long ago we lowered allowed amount of exposure down to five μg/m from the previous 52 when studies have shown 20 μg/m to be toxic
That means a lot of bad things yet to unfold for those exposed since the latency period for cancer can be 20 to 30+ years.


Our government is outstandingly poor at protecting us even compared to other industrialized nations...
but that's a long story, isn't it

[JeffersonChick]

3. Umm... is this the same chromium

That's in vitamin supplements? Please tell me it's not so!