Heavy metal toxicity chromium

Toxic pollutants found in the mercury cell wastewater stream include mercury and some heavy metals like chromium and others stated in Table 22.8, some of them are corrosion products of reactions between chlorine and the plant materials of construction. Virtually, most of these pollutants are generally removed by sulfide precipitation followed by settling or filtration. Prior to treatment, sodium hydrosulfide is used to precipitate mercury sulfide, which is removed through filtration process in the wastewater stream. The tail gas scrubber water is often recycled as brine make-up water. Reduction, adsorption on activated carbon, ion exchange, and some chemical treatments are some of the processes employed in the treatment of wastewater in this cell. Sodium salts such as sodium bisulfite, sodium hydrosulfite, sodium sulfide, and sodium borohydride are also employed in the treatment of the wastewater in this cell28 (Figure 22.5). 

Fly ash from municipal waste and industrial waste incinerators contains polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), including tetrachlorodibenzo-/j-dioxin (TCDD) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), which are lipophiles, and heavy metals, including chromium, copper, manganese, vanadium, and lead, which are hydrophilesJ29-31 These chemicals have multiple toxicities and are known to impact the human liver, immune system, respiratory system, thyroid, male reproductive function, and CNS J32 34l Several are human carcinogensJ32 35 Enhanced toxic effects are observed in the mixtures of some of theseJ21,22 36 The mixtures of toxicants present in fly ash are complex and the mechanisms for their action on the human body are largely unknown. It is known that occupational exposure to fly... 

The automobile is also an indirect source of another heavy metal contaminant, chromium. Chromium compounds (such as Cr04 ) are used in chrome plating for bumpers and grills. This plating also requires the use of the cyanide ion (CN), another major pollutant. These contaminants used to be discharged directly into streams, but now they re either pretreated to reduce to a less-toxic form or precipitated (formed into a solid) and disposed of in landfills. 

A specific heavy-metals contamination (chromium) was detected in collagen hydrolysates prepared from trimming/cuttings of chromium-tanned hides up to 100 ppm of chromium was found in samples of powdered collagen hydrolysates on the market at the end of the 1970s (135). The oxidation state of chromium was not determined, but probably it was Cr ", less toxic than Cr, as in the tanning industry only basic salts of Cr " are used. 

Because of its position in the Periodic Table, molybdenum has sometimes been linked to chromium (see Chromiumand chromium alloys) or to other heavy metals. However, unlike those elements, molybdenum and its compounds have relatively low toxicity, as shown in Table 3. On the other hand, molybdenum has been identified as a micronutrient essential to plant life (11,12) (see Fertilizers), and plays a principal biochemical role in animal health as a constituent of several important enzyme systems (see Mineral nutrients). 

Environmental Concerns. Dyes, because they are intensely colored, present special problems in effluent discharge even a very small amount is noticeable. However, the effect is more aesthetically displeasing rather than ha2ardous, eg, red dyes discharged into rivers and oceans. Of more concern is the discharge of toxic heavy metals such as mercury and chromium. 

The salts of the heavy metals beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc are all of high eco-toxicity. For example, the toxicity of some heavy metals to rainbow trout is demonstrated in Table 16.13 coarse fish are somewhat more resistant. 

Some heavy metals and semi-metals are quite toxic (chromium, lead, and antimony) and expensive care is needed to prevent them from being dispersed in the environment. Lead in gasoline and paint has been... 

Heavy metals the total of chromium, lead, copper and other toxic metals expressed in mg/l. 

Standards imposed to the industrial waste streams charged in heavy metals are more and more drastic in accordance with the updated knowledges of the toxicity of mercury, cadmium, lead, chromium... when they enter the human food chain after accumulating in plants and animals (Forster Wittmann, 1983). Nowadays, the use of biosorbents (Volesky, 1990) is more and more considered to complete conventional (physical and chemical) methods of removal that have shown their limits and/or are prohibitively expensive for metal concentrations typically below 100 mg.l-i. 

Many toxic pollutants were detected in the process wastewaters from metal molding and casting processes. The toxic pollutants detected most frequently in concentrations at or above 0.1 mg/L were phenolic compounds and heavy metals. The pollutants include 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, 2,4-dimethyl-phenol, phenol, 2-ethylhexyl, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc. Each type of operation in the foundry industry can produce different types of pollutants in the wastewater stream. Also, because each subcategory operation often involves different processes, pollutant concentrations per casting metals may vary. 

Species may differ by oxidation state for example, manganese(II) and (IV) iron(II) and (III) and chromium(III) and (VI). Oxidation state is influenced by the redox potential. Mobility is affected because oxidation state influences precipitation-dissolution reactions and also toxicity in the case of heavy metals. 

Coprecipitation is a partitioning process whereby toxic heavy metals precipitate from the aqueous phase even if the equilibrium solubility has not been exceeded. This process occurs when heavy metals are incorporated into the structure of silicon, aluminum, and iron oxides when these latter compounds precipitate out of solution. Iron hydroxide collects more toxic heavy metals (chromium, nickel, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, and thorium) during precipitation than aluminum hydroxide.38 Coprecipitation is considered to effectively remove trace amounts of lead and chromium from solution in injected wastes at New Johnsonville, Tennessee.39 Coprecipitation with carbonate minerals may be an important mechanism for dealing with cobalt, lead, zinc, and cadmium. 

An example of some of the newer regulations is the restriction against the use of the popular mud dispersant, chrome lignosulfonate. It is expected that this regulation is merely the initial step toward ruling out the use of all heavy metal salts commonly employed in the formulation of well fluids because of their toxicity to aquatic life and humans. This means that the use of zinc and lead, in addition to chromium, may not be allowed in the future. At least one major oil company has already taken steps in this direction by ruling out the use of heavy metal salts in any well fluid in their worldwide operations. 

Chromium has proved effective in counteracting the deleterious effects of cadmium in rats and of vanadium in chickens. High mortality rates and testicular atrophy occurred in rats subjected to an intraperitoneal injection of cadmium salts however, pretreatment with chromium ameliorated these effects (Stacey et al. 1983). The Cr-Cd relationship is not simple. In some cases, cadmium is known to suppress adverse effects induced in Chinese hamster (Cricetus spp.) ovary cells by Cr (Shimada et al. 1998). In southwestern Sweden, there was an 80% decline in chromium burdens in liver of the moose (Alces alces) between 1982 and 1992 from 0.21 to 0.07 mg Cr/kg FW (Frank et al. 1994). During this same period in this locale, moose experienced an unknown disease caused by a secondary copper deficiency due to elevated molybdenum levels as well as chromium deficiency and trace element imbalance (Frank et al. 1994). In chickens (Gallus sp.), 10 mg/kg of dietary chromium counteracted adverse effects on albumin metabolism and egg shell quality induced by 10 mg/kg of vanadium salts (Jensen and Maurice 1980). Additional research on the beneficial aspects of chromium in living resources appears warranted, especially where the organism is subjected to complex mixtures containing chromium and other potentially toxic heavy metals. 

Sauter, S., K.S. Buxton, K.J. Macek, and S.R. Petrocelli. 1976. Effects of exposure to heavy metals on selected freshwater fish. Toxicity of copper, cadmium, chromium and lead to eggs and fry of seven fish species. U.S. Environ. Protection Agen. Rep. 600/3-76-105. 75 pp. 

Information gathering Fish kills may also be caused by toxic industrial discharges or agricultural run-off that contains high levels of fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. Sometimes old barrels of industrial waste dumped in the river years ago begin leaking into the river. Such barrels occasionally come to the surface. Solutions of toxic heavy metals, such as chromium, are sometimes dumped surreptitiously into rivers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published many methods for pesticides, herbicides, etc. in water. 

The process can be used to immobilize heavy metals such as Cd, Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni and Co. Cr(VI) can be reduced by some metal-reducing bacteria to the less toxic and less soluble form Cr(III). Arsenate [As(V)] can be reduced to the more mobile arsenite [As(III)] which precipitates as AS2S3, and is insoluble at low pH. Several laboratory-scale tests (batch and column) are currently available to study the feasibility of this process. However, only a few field tests have been performed to date. Two such tests have been conducted in Belgium, one at a non-ferrous industrial site, where the groundwater was contaminated with Cd, Zn, Ni and Co, and the other which was treated by injection of molasses in order to reduce chromium (VI) to chromium (III). A third demonstration in The Netherlands has been performed at a metal surface treatment site contaminated by Zn. The outcomes of a batch test of a groundwater heavily contaminated by Zn, Cd, Co and Ni are presented in Table 5. The initial sulphate concentration was 506mg/l. With the addition of acetate, a nearly... 

The term heavy metal refers to any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density (nsnally specific density of more than 5 g/mL) and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations. Examples of heavy metals include arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and thallium (Tl). The sources, uses, and environmental effects of several exemplary specific metals are discussed briefly here. 

As this table suggests, the environmental hazard posed by heavy metals varies significantly. Some of the elements listed in that chart are among the most hazardous substances released to the environment. The EPA has classified four of the heavy metals—arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium—among the top 25 most hazardous chemicals present in the environment in the United States. (Of the remaining substances on that list 18 are toxic organic chemicals one is another heavy metal, chromium one is white phosphorus and the last is creosote produced from coal tar.)... 

Sevenson Environmental Services, Inc. (Sevenson), is the owner of the MAECTITE chemical treatment process for the precipitation and stabilization of toxic heavy metals. Chemical treatment by the MAECTITE process converts teachable lead, hexavalent chromium, or other heavy metals into insoluble minerals and mixed mineral forms within the material or waste matrix. The technology can be used as an in situ or an ex situ method and does not use pozzolanic or siliceous binders to stabilize the treated material. 

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