Two decades of exposure assessment studies on chromate production waste in Jersey City, New Jersey—what we have learned about exposure characterization and its value to public health and remediation

Abstract

During much of the twentieth century, Jersey City, New Jersey was the leading center of chromate production in the United States. Chromate production produced huge volumes of chromium ore-processing residue containing many parts per million of hexavalent chromium. Starting in the 1990s, we undertook a series of studies to identify exposed populations, sources and pathways of exposure and the effectiveness of remediation activities in Jersey City. These studies revealed the effectiveness and success of the remediation activities. The sequence of studies presented here, builds on the lessons learned from each preceding study and illustrates how these studies advanced the field of exposure science in important ways, including the use of household dust as a measure of exposure to contaminants originating in the outdoor environment; development of effective and reproducible dust sampling; use of household dust to track temporal changes in exposure; understanding of the spatial relationship between sources of passive outdoor particulate emissions and residential exposure; use of focused biomonitoring to assess exposure under conditions of large inter-individual variability; and utility of linking environmental monitoring and biomonitoring. For chromium, the studies have demonstrated the use of Cr⁺⁶-specific analytical methods for measuring low concentrations of Cr⁺⁶ in household dust and understanding of the occurrence of Cr⁺⁶ in the background residential environment. We strongly recommend that environmental and public health agencies evaluate sites for their potential for off-site exposure and apply these tools in cases with significant potential as appropriate. This approach is especially important when contamination is widespread and/or a large population is potentially exposed. In such cases, these tools should be used to identify, characterize and then reduce the exposure to the off-site as well as on-site population. Importantly, these tools can be used in a demonstrable and quantifiable manner to provide both clarity and closure to concerned stakeholders.