![]() In the meantime, California should deny requests to drill more oil wells in neighborhoods.ĭecorative chrome plating facilities, smaller shops that deposit a thin layer of chromium on products like plumbing fixtures, wheel rims and car bumpers, would have to stop using hexavalent chromium by 2027. ![]() California shouldn’t let themĪ referendum to overturn a ban on new oil drilling near homes and schools qualified for the November 2024 ballot. Opinion Editorial: Oil companies spent millions to keep drilling in neighborhoods. We don’t use leaded gasoline and paint, asbestos in buildings or allow smoking in restaurants and airplanes anymore, and we’re all safer and healthier for it. Ending the use of hexavalent chromium would reduce that to zero.Ĭalifornia regulators long ago banned other toxic air pollutants like perchloroethylene used by dry cleaners, which was replaced with less harmful alternatives. Large chrome-plating facilities have an estimated cancer risk of about 213 additional cases per 1 million people, far above the limit of 10 per 1 million recommended by health experts. ![]() While it’s notoriously difficult to ascribe someone’s cancer to a singular cause, regulators can quantify the broader threat by calculating the chances of contracting cancer over a lifetime of exposure. Opponents of a chrome-plating ban continue to question the health concerns. Some pollutants are so dangerous that they need to be eliminated. It’s no longer good enough to incrementally reduce such a highly toxic chemical. More than 73% of chrome-plating facilities in California are in disadvantaged communities hard-hit by multiple sources of pollution. State and local regulations to reduce emissions from chrome-platers and other metal-processing facilities have done too little to address this longstanding environmental injustice. ![]() County.Īir monitoring in recent years has detected alarmingly high levels of hexavalent chromium, also called chromium-6, near metal-finishing facilities in communities like Paramount that already have some of the region’s highest cancer risk from air pollution and where residents are exposed to higher concentrations that are not picked up in monitoring data, according to air quality regulators. ![]() Opinion Editorial: Why do state regulators keep failing residents in Exide lead cleanup?Ī Times investigation raises more questions about whether state regulators are up to the task of the $750-million Exide lead cleanup in L.A. The California Air Resources Board should move forward with a proposal to ban its use in chrome-plating, while doing more to help small businesses make a successful transition to safer alternatives. These operations shouldn’t be allowed to keep dumping such a dangerous chemical into the air, creating a health threat to their neighbors. More than two-thirds of the 114 chrome-plating facilities that use hexavalent chromium in California are within 1,000 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive locations, and about 10% are within 65 feet, according to air quality officials. It’s a pollutant that’s about 500 times more carcinogenic than the particulate matter in diesel exhaust, and its release into neighboring communities has been a problem for decades. Southern California has the nation’s highest concentration of chrome platers, the metal shops that dip car bumpers, plumbing fixtures, airplane parts and other products in large industrial tanks to coat them with a shiny, mirror-like finish.īut the chemical they have long used, hexavalent chromium, is a serious health hazard, with no safe level of exposure. ![]()
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