Some residents of Garfield, New Jersey will have their toenail clippings analyzed and measured for hexavalent chromium, the Associated Press reported. Hexavalent chromium is a chemical known to the State of California to cause reproductive harm and cancer (more specifically, lung, nasal, and sinus cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)). Because toenails grow slowly, the researchers will be able to analyze how much chromium has accumulated in the body over the past 18 months. Researchers hope to test 250 residents.
Thirty years ago, a spill occurred at the EC Electroplating Company site, located in a residential neighborhood, and chromium was later found in a firehouse and nearby homes. Residents were cautioned to stay out of their basements in order to avoid exposing themselves to the chromium, which had leached into the groundwater. The chromium has since traveled into the neighboring city of Passiac, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently monitoring how far the chemical has spread. Testing continues of homes and schools around the site of the original spill, which has been designated a Superfund site, among the nation’s most toxic uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.
Hexavalent chromium compounds are used for leather tanning, fungicides, wood preservation, electroplating, and as anti-corrosion agents, among other things. It is also a by-product of processes such as welding and the manufacture of stainless steel. The CDC calls it “a well-established carcinogen associated with lung, nasal, and sinus cancer.” California has designated hexavalent chromium as a chemical known to cause cancer and reproductive harm, meaning that any product sold or distributed in California that exposes consumers to hexavalent chromium must be accompanied by a Proposition 65 health hazard warning.
Michael DiPirro, a longtime client of The Chanler Group, has obtained settlements with companies such as Amazon.com, Hilti, and Ingersoll-Rand for not including the required health hazard warnings that consumers would be exposed to hexavalent chromium, when they sold or rented sandblasters, power drills, and other power tools to residents in the State of California. The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers such as DiPirro who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Such citizen enforcers may obtain a Court judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings.
