From: Sil Horwitz (silh@earthlink.net)
Date: 05/01/00-12:37:36 PM Z
At 2000/05/01 12:57 PM -0500, Linda Phillips wrote:
>The thing about dichromates that make them scarier for me is the fact that
>they are carcinogenic. I may be wrong about this, but I've always had
>the understanding that with carcinogens, only ONE MOLECULE is enough to
>cause cancer, if the conditions are right and your luck is bad.
Drop into any health food store, and you will find (1) chromium is an
ingredient in all multiple vitamins and minerals, and (2) chromium
compounds are available in tablets as a dietary supplement, as it is
difficult to get sufficient quantities in todays sanitized food products.
All humans need a trace of chromium for healthy living. Disposing of a few
grams of a chromium compound into a wastewater system may actually be
improving our health - think of that!
The "carcinogenic" component normally is inhalation of the powder and/or
ingestion of considerably more than a molecule. If you are running an
industrial operation using tons of the stuff, then you certainly should
abide by all the precautionary handling.
Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
teched@psa-photo.org
silh@earthlink.net
Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/
Personal page: http://home.earthlink.net/~silh/
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