1, 2, chromium 3 and 4

This is like the story of good old movies. A good and a bad guy from the same family; The Chromium family, their compounds are good and bad. Where are they in our lives? Their existence and use dates back to about 2000 years of human civilization.

Chromium is a naturally occurring element. Out of all their compounds, the commonly occurring valence states are chromium metal Cr (0), trivalent chromium Cr (III) and hexavalent chromium Cr (IV). We need to dig out about 4 kg of chromium ore from earth to realize 1 kg usable chromium.

We use chromium compounds to fight corrosion, as tanning salts in leather industries and others, as an important constituent in metal alloys (metal alloys alone account for 85% of chromium usage), in wood preservation, cement manufacturing.
Abundantly used in today’s surface coating applications incl. chrome plating, paint and pigment applications (the brilliant yellow paint has to be made from high concentrations of chromium compounds) and in few anodizing process.
They were an essential compound in those infamous magnetic recording tapes and photography films: Progressive new technologies at least replaced these tapes and films with new mass storage devices and image sensors.
So, what is so special about these chemical compounds?

Hexavalent Chromium Cr (IV), a class I carcinogen, is one of the most celebrated chemical in recent times. Thanks to the sustainable status shift companies are aiming at. Even the ‘Erin Brokovich’ movie plot was built on Cr (IV) health effects based on a true story, where an industry’s waste water with high concentrations of Cr (IV) percolates in to ground water and lead to acute sufferings of people in and around that locality. In 1996, this company paid $333 million to the people living around its setup in a law suit.

Cr (IV) is readily reactive and soluble in water. It is still an essential alloy constituent in stainless steel and is/was used widely by those hundreds of leather tanneries of Kanpur and Vaniyambaadi in India (legally as well as illegally). People obviously love that shiny/silver finish of chrome plated products/parts. But researches say that their compounds are genotoxic even in small traces, exposure and inhalation can easily cause lung cancer and damages in kidneys and intestine. Occupational hazard is indefinitely high; certain leather tanneries no more employ young people and women, but still employ people.

Well, controversially, trivalent chromium Cr (III) is an essential mineral for human metabolism, a trace amount of it is necessary for maintenance of good health since it helps our body to utilize sugar, fat and protein. Cr (III) sounds necessary, isn’t it? Even then in many literatures, it is carefully denoted as ‘less toxic’ (than Cr (IV)), but not as ‘safe’ entirely. Continual exposure can lead to mentionable health effects and allergic situations.
Most of the literatures and research reports on Cr (III) never seem to take a firm stand on any side of good or bad affects and effects of it, hence concluded ‘less bad’ usually.

There are nearly about 20 different chromium compounds which have to be restricted / stopped in use. The new revised Hazardous waste act, 2008 enforced by Ministry of Environment and Forests, India limits hexavalent chromium only up to 50mg/kg in regulation. There are other better benchmarks which recommend complete avoidance of Cr (IV) usage until and unless it is highly necessary for technical performance in some cases, but it is essential to keep such products in closed loop of manufacture, use and recovery.
New environment regulations and measures led many to adopt Cr (III) as an effective alternative to Cr (IV) at least in surface coating applications (chrome plating etc).

# There are researches on, to discover possible absorption and removal of Cr (IV) through bacteria and other micro-organisms.
# EU norms (2006) prohibit marketing of new electrical and electronic equipments containing Cr (IV) at a concentration greater than 0.1% by weight.
# Arc welding of stainless steel is extremely dangerous.
# Trivalent chromium compounds are bluish-black.
# Hexavalent chromium compounds are yellow-orange-brown.

It is difficult to get convinced on this whole chromium chronology, all depends on its oxidation state and acidity around, chromium compounds can change from trivalent to hexavalent and vice-versa through various reactions and consequences in the environment and inside human/animal body. We still have to settle for one Cr (III) which is less toxic and obviously not 100% safe.

Daily Defies

Designers!, often referred as sensitive species, are we sensitive to the issues around. We have numerous chemicals, heavy metals and materials around us. We are still brewing new sets of synthetic creations from our laboratories with no counterparts in nature. Where are we leading towards?

With so much green washing around, now that most us care for the environment. We try and buy things made of recyclable/recycled materials, but these things which add up to your sensitivity quotient to environment might not be designed with further use in mind, I mean recycling these products towards their end of life.Recycling and reshaping them would have cost us more energy and additives than it’s entire life cycle. It might release more harmful byproducts than it’s previous life cycle.

Forget the recycled products. Let us deal with certain aspects from our daily life.

Soaps and detergents, this one is the best example of man’s passion for simplifying things, Universal design. Single soap for the entire country, even though water qualities and needs differ from place to place. Imagine the strength of a detergent to strip off hard stains, to work efficiently in hard or saline or soft water, classic case of “designed for the worst case scenario”. What would happen when they are treated as sewage effluents, when they come in contact with aquatic lives in the rivers nearby?

Then our beloved PET bottles, the source of water for many of us in recent times is capable enough to leach out antimony into the contents stored in them. Are we aware of this, do we have a positive alternative to this?

Take out your wallet and see, how many plastic cards we carry around, we use at least one of them everyday, and we wear around some of them all day (ID cards). Does any of them have it’s material mentioned with, so sad, there are 90% chances that they were made of PVC.

And definitely your leather wallet, there are chances that they were tanned using hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen.

The computer which I use, made of brominated flame retardant chemicals, have heavy metals like cadmium, mercury and lead.Those compact discs made of Polycarbonate has bisphenol-A, which can mimic body hormones.

And the dust particle from the 3 in 1 printer/photocopier/scanner has nickel and cobalt. Imagine the kind of indoor air quality that will persist in this environment.No wonder 90% of world’s population has developed some kind of allergic sensation.

More over, we always go wrong when it comes to the debate of “Plastic or Paper”.

And our food and cooking; we might be ingesting genetically modified food products unintentionally and fluropolymers from our non-stick cook wares every day.

I need another hundred pages to explain why these things that I mentioned are not completely safe. I will try and address them in the forthcoming articles. And frankly! I am not trying to scare people away; many of these things have effective and positive alternatives too, but who cares?

PVC! - a known culprit

Vinyl chloride, a class I carcinogen is the monomer used to produce PVC. Humans have high probability of acquiring cancer due to vinyl chloride exposure. As a matter of fact 13% of death in this world happens because of cancer.

PVC is not bio-degradable like many other polymers. It is cost prohibitive to recycle PVC in a safe way, because of the number and types of additives used in its production. Less than 1% of PVC is recycled across the world. Its contents can leech out in to the environment at any point of their life cycle.

Phthalates are used as plasticizers to soften PVC, their content usually range from 1 to 40% in proportion with other additives. It can be found in soft toys, medical equipments like tubes & blood bags, cosmetics, surface coatings etc. Phthalates can leech out during use, causes liver and kidney damage and reproductive system damages.

PCB (Polychlorobiphenyl) is added as a stabilizing additive in flexible PVC. Dioxins and PCBs are produced as by-products when PVC is produced or burned. Production of PCB is completely banned in many countries since 1970 because of its adverse health effects. Dioxins can persist in the environment and can travel long distances.

Phthalates, PCB and Dioxins are identified as potential endocrine disrupters and carcinogens.
PVC is declared as ‘contaminant’ even before 10 years in many countries. Still many Indian majors are strategizing their timelines to phase out hazardous substances.

PVC is a commonly used insulation on electrical wires, used abundantly in construction applications, medical applications, automobile interiors, many forms of cards (smart cards, credit cards etc), and in clothing and footwear to name a few.