State Establishes Public Health Goal for Chromium 6

Submitted by Sarah Langford on Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:11pm

California established a final public health goal today for hexavalent chromium in drinking water at .02 parts per billion.

The PHG is a health risk assessment, not an enforceable drinking water standard, and is the first step in the process of setting a drinking water standard for cancer-causing chromium 6.

A study completed in 2007 by the National Toxicology Program found that chromium 6 causes cancer of the oral cavity and small intestine in laboratory animals when administered orally. The original draft PHG was lowered from 0.06 ppb to 0.02 ppb in late 2010 after taking into account new research that documented young children and other sensitive populations are more susceptible than the general population to health risks from exposure to carcinogens.

The PHG released today will be used by the California Department of Public Health to set the maximum contaminant level for chromium 6. The department considers analytical capabilities, treatment feasibility and cost when setting MCLs.

The final PHG documents can be found here. CDPH has released FAQs on the development of the chromium 6 MCL and talking points regarding the final PHG.