TOXICOLOGICAL PROFILE FOR CHROMIUM - Davidborowski.com

CHROMIUM 732. HEALTH EFFECTScaustic burns in the mouth and pharynx, blood in the vomitus, diarrhea, irregular respiration, and laboredbreathing. The ultimate cause of death was shock and hemorrhage into the small intestine (Reichelderfer1968).Several reports were available in which the amount of ingested chromium compound could be estimated.A 17-year-old male died after ingesting 29 mg chromium(VI)/kg as potassium dichromate in a suicide.Despite attempts to save his life, he died 14 hours after ingestion from respiratory distress with severehemorrhages. Caustic burns in the stomach and duodenum and gastrointestinal hemorrhage were alsofound (Clochesy 1984; Iserson et al. 1983).A few reports have described death of humans after ingesting lower doses of chromium(VI). In one case,a 14-year-old boy died 8 days after admission to the hospital following ingestion of 7.5 mgchromium(VI)/kg as potassium dichromate from his chemistry set. Death was preceded bygastrointestinal ulceration and severe liver and kidney damage (Kaufman et al. 1970). In another case, a44-year-old man died of severe gastrointestinal hemorrhage 1 month after ingesting 4.1 mgchromium(VI)/kg as chromic acid (Saryan and Reedy 1988).Acute oral LD 50 values in rats exposed to chromium(III) or chromium(VI) compounds varied with thecompound and the sex of the rat. LD 50 values for chromium(VI) compounds (sodium chromate, sodiumdichromate, potassium dichromate, and ammonium dichromate) range from 13 to 19 mgchromium(VI)/kg in female rats and from 21 to 28 mg chromium(VI)/kg in male rats (Gad et al. 1986).LD 50 values of 108 (female rats) and 249 (male rats) mg chromium(VI)/kg for calcium chromate werereported by Vernot et al. (1977). The LD 50 values for chromium trioxide were 25 and 29 mgchromium(VI)/kg for female and male rats, respectively (American Chrome and Chemicals 1989). AnLD 50 of 811 mg chromium(VI)/kg as strontium chromate was reported for male rats (Shubochkin andPokhodzie 1980). Twenty percent mortality was observed when female Swiss Albino mice were exposedto potassium dichromate(VI) in drinking water at a dose of 169 mg chromium(VI)/kg/day (Junaid et al.1996a). Similar exposure to a dose level of 89 mg chromium(VI)/kg/day resulted in 15% mortalityamong female rats of the Druckrey strain (Kanojia et al. 1998). The disparity between this dose and theLD 50 identified in the Gad et al. (1986) study may be due to the route of administration, drinking waterversus gavage. Chromium(III) compounds are less toxic than chromium(VI) compounds, with LD 50values in rats of 2,365 mg chromium(III)/kg as chromium acetate (Smyth et al. 1969) and 183 and 200 mgchromium(III)/kg as chromium nitrate in female and male rats, respectively (Vernot et al. 1977). Thelower toxicity of chromium(III) acetate compared with chromium(III) nitrate may be related to solubility;