ABSTRACT

Workers exposed to this chemical are at increased risk for lung cancer and damage to the nose, throat, and respiratory tract. The majority of those potentially exposed at higher levels are welders, but the presence of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in Portland cement, even in trace amounts, certainly broadens the numbers of those exposed. In fact, construction industry labor unions ‰led a lawsuit because those exposed to Portland cement were exempt from the scope of the initial FedOSHA hexavalent chromium standard. That was settled in 2007 with FedOSHA agreeing to special inspections of construction sites having Portland cement exposures. Then, in 2009, the Third Circuit Court ruled that FedOSHA failed to explain why it did not require informing workers of all hexavalent chromium exposures-as is required in the lead and arsenic standards, for example. (The standard had required noti‰cation only of exposures exceeding the permissible exposure limit (PEL).) In early 2010, the agency announced that it would require worker noti‰cation of all exposures, whether above or below the limit.1