Response to “Urinary Excretion of Chromium Following Ingestion of Chromite-Ore Processing Residues in Humans: Implications for Biomonitoring” by Gargas et al

Details

• Personal Author:
  Freeman NC ; Gochfeld M ; Stern AH
• Description:
  In their recent paper, Gargas et al. fed soil contaminated with chromate production waste to human volunteers and on the basis of their findings, claimed that human exposure to chromate production waste does not result in an increase in urinary chromium concentration. The purpose of Gargas et al. appears to be to cast doubt on previous investigations of environmental exposure to chromate production waste in Hudson County, New Jersey, employing population-based biomonitoring of urine chromium. While Gargas et al. found no significant increase in urinary chromium excretion, we believe that their study does not accurately reflect conditions of exposure to chromate production waste in Hudson County and that their findings therefore do not, in fact, invalidate the conclusions of previous studies of chromium (Cr) exposure in Hudson County. We base our conclusion on the presence of three major flaws in the Gargas et al. study: 1) The assumption of Gargas et al. that measured levels of Cr in Hudson County air are insufficient to result in a measurable increase in urinary Cr due to inhalation exposure is based on a misunderstanding of the existing literature; 2) The chromate production waste ingested by the volunteers in their study was not representative of the resuspended residential dust addressed in previous investigations, either in particle size, or Cr concentration and; 3) Gargas et al. mischaracterize two previous New Jersey Cr biomonitoring studies which they assert support their conclusions, one of which is, however, not relevant to residential exposure and the other of which is clearly inconsistent with their conclusions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomarkers Chromates Chromium Environmental Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Biomonitoring Chromium Compounds Environmental Exposure Exposure Assessment Humans
• ISSN:
  0272-4332
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  16
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059986
• Citation:
  Risk Anal 1996 Oct; 16(5):605-607
• CAS Registry Number:
  Chromium (CAS RN 7440-47-3)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1997
• Performing Organization:
  Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19920701
• Source Full Name:
  Risk Analysis
• End Date:
  19970630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0012c44511d97da9dfa83411fdda2612f19d2c3f319aa7654a7fb6b7fe0c99ad8e6f4e1c35c9734b1f2c455249948b950cd6e5d62d07c4dcafbe3183adb447c7
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224032/cdc_224032_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 295.51 KB ]