ABSTRACT
While the problem of water contamination with chromium (Cr) is sometimes narrowed only to the problem of contamination with hexavalent Cr species, the trivalent species are also important. The main reason why attention is focused on hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is its toxicity and suspected carcinogenicity (Bagchi et al., 2002). Trivalent chromium (Cr(III)) was for a long time considered to be an essential element for mammals, however, recent studies dispute this role (Di Bona et al., 2011). Nevertheless, it is still used as a dietary supplement and its toxicity was found to be very low (Staniek et al., 2011).
