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The Revised Hexavalent Chromium Rule Approaches Deadline
7/1/2005
 The Revised Hexavalent Chromium standard moved past the Post-hearing comment stage in April and is awaiting the final deadline rule scheduled for January 18, 2006.
The odyssey of this rule change began in 2002 when the advocacy group Public Citizen and the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) sued OSHA, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia to order the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue a new, safer worker exposure limit for hexavalent chromium.
OSHA responded with a Proposed Rule in October 2004. Since that time the rule change has undergone administrative hearings earlier this year in February, and new data was accepted in March. Following the post-hearing comments collected on April 20, the proposed rule is now awaiting its final deadline set for January 18, 2006.
The rule will lower the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for hexavalent chromium and for all hexavalent chromium (CrVI) compounds in construction, shipyards, and general industry from 52 to one microgram of CrVI per cubic meter of air as an 8-hour time weighted average. This change will affect exposure control methods, personal protective equipment strategies, as well has workplace hygiene, medical surveillance requirements, hazard communication information, and recordkeeping burdens associated with workplace exposure to the substances.
CrVI compounds are widely used in the chemical industry in pigments, metal plating, and chemical synthesis as ingredients and catalysts. CrVI can also be produced when welding on stainless steel or CrVI-painted surfaces. The major health effects associated with exposure to CrVI include lung cancer, asthma, nasal septum ulcerations and perforations, skin ulcerations (or chrome holes), and allergic and irritant contact dermatitis.
Trade groups such as the Surface Finishing Industry Council (SFIC) have criticized OSHA's risk assessment of the health hazards presented by the CrVI and the feasibility of implementing the engineering controls required by the new rule. In a presentation delivered in Washington, DC on May 11, 2005, the SFIC suggested OSHA drastically underestimated costs associated with implementing the new rule.
Public Citizen asserted in a letter read at OSHA's post-hearing comments session on April 20 that they also were concerned with OSHA's risk assessment, suggesting the reliance on two epidemiological cancer studies underrepresented the adverse health effects of CrVI. Public Citizen also indicated the reduction of the CrVI PEL to 1 microgram per cubic meter from 52 micrograms per cubic meter is not drastic enough. The group strongly recommended the limit be further reduced to .25 microgram per cubic meter.
OSHA has not yet offered a public response to the comments collected at the April 20.
Click here for a Fact Sheet on major provisions of the proposed standard.
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