According to a new report scientists funded by the chromium industry withheld key data from the U.S. government which called for a strict standard to be imposed regarding workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium.
The report is based on evidence of the manipulation of material in documents that surfaced following the bankruptcy of the Industrial Health Foundation, a group funded by the chromium industry.
Researchers from the Washington-based Public Citizen Health Research Group, and the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services discovered the documents as the result of an Internet search and through the public access to court electronic records system.
They say according to the secret industry documents the chromium industry at the same time fought to block a lower federal workplace exposure level for the potentially deadly metal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that hexavalent chromium is a human carcinogen.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has also determined that certain hexavalent chromium compounds are known to cause cancer in humans, and the EPA has determined that hexavalent chromium in air is a human carcinogen.
Though many agree that too much hexavalent chromium puts people at risk for lung cancer, how much is too much is unclear.
While the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration contemplates it's imminent ruling on the matter which is due on Tuesday, this new report will give food for thought.
The report states that industry-commissioned scientists withheld data suggesting even small amounts of the known carcinogen, which is used in the steel, aerospace, electroplating and industries, can be deadly.
David Michaels and co-author Dr. Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group have compared the chromium industry's manipulation of scientific results to the behaviour of the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.
They say all of the standard elements of scientific distortion are evident, hiding behind the lawyers, statistical manipulation, and failure to publish; all strategies copied straight out of the tobacco industry's book.
Lawyers for the industry of course disagree with the Environmental Health report and have labelled the charges in the report, false, outrageous and libelous, and deny any industry-sponsored research was withheld from OSHA.
While past litigation has focused on the dangers of contact with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium VI, through polluted water, the current concerns deal with airborne chromium VI that some 380,000 U.S. workers might inhale on the job.