TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILE FOR CHROMIUM - Davidborowski.com

CHROMIUM 572. HEALTH EFFECTSinclude terminated employees, retirees, or individuals who died more than 1 year after the diagnosis ofcancer. However, whether these exclusions would result in an overestimation or an underestimation ofthe risk is not known. In addition to the cases of lung cancer deaths, 10 cases of bronchogenic carcinomawere diagnosed among 897 living men who worked in the plants for an average of 22.8 years (PHS1953). A high rate of respiratory cancer was found in a cohort of 1,212 male workers who wereemployed for at least 3 months in any of three chromate plants in the United States during a 4-year periodfrom 1937 to 1940 and followed until 1960 (O/E=71/8.344, SMR=850.9). The expected death rate wasdetermined from U.S. male rates. For the period of 1937–1960, the following values were found forrespiratory cancer (Taylor 1966). The increased risk of death from respiratory cancer correlated withduration of employment in chromate production, but no information on exposure levels, smoking habits,or exposure to other chemicals was provided. A reanalysis of these data several years later found an evenhigher SMR for respiratory cancer (O/E=69/7.3, SMR=942.6) (Enterline 1974).Examination of records at a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, revealed that of 290 male lung cancerpatients admitted between 1925 and 1948, 11 had been exposed to chromates and 10 had worked in alocal chromate producing plant. No indication of chromate exposure was found in the referent group of725 patients admitted for other causes (Baetjer 1950b). In a cohort of 2,101 employees who had workedfor at least 90 days during the years 1945–1959 in the same chromium production plant in Baltimore,Maryland, and followed until 1977, there were 59 deaths from lung cancer compared with 29.16 expectedbased on the mortality rates for Baltimore. The SMR of 202 was significant (p