Hyderabad: The use of chromium for tanning leather is nudging workers towards contracting cancer. Researchers from Osmania University, as part of a study to find the effect of chromium toxicity on tannery workers, collected blood samples of 92 workers from different tanneries. They found that there was significant damage in the DNA of the workers due to chromium.
Dr K. Rudrama Devi, Professor Emeritus at the university’s Human Genetics and Molecular Lab, said, “Our findings conclude that chromium exposure has caused instability of genetic material in the workers. These individuals and even their children have increased risk of developing cancer.” Dr Rudrama Devi, expert in occupational toxicity, said, “Lack of basic precautions like provision of gloves, uniform covering the skin and face masks are resulting in chromium toxicity in workers.”
She said, “Chrome tanning is still the most economically advantageous method to produce good quality leather and there is a necessity to find equally effective but safer alternative to it. “Vegetable oils are being used in some tanneries but its availability to meet the needs of all tanneries in the country is doubtful as it is mainly consumed as edible oil.” When contacted Telangana state Pollution Control Board officials said that tanneries had been directed to use trivalent chromium for tanning leather which was a safer alternative to hexavalent chromium and that many tanneries are using trivalent chromium.
However, Dr Devi says that while hexavalent chromium was regarded as a primary toxic threat due to its there have been studies which prove absorption of trivalent chromium in workers exposed to it. She noted in her study that while the rate of uptake of trivalent chromium by cells is slower, it is absorbed to a larger extent than hexavalent chromium, due to better solubility in biological membranes.
