The State Office for Consumer Protection of the Free State of Thuringia publishes the information flyer "Chromium (VI) exposure during maintenance and repair of turbines and engines" in August 2022.
Now what many turbine and engine manufacturers, but also the producers of high-temperature insulation materials and their associated insulation companies, wanted to prevent for a long time has come to pass:
Occupational safety and health administration priority action (SPA) launched
As part of the Germany-wide GDA work program "Carcinogenic Substances", the Thuringia regional association asks the following three questions regarding the possible formation of the carcinogenic, mutagenic and chronically environmentally harmful chromium (VI) compound calcium chromate (CaCrO4) when using high-temperature insulation and systems containing calcium:
Have operators recognized these potential hazards and documented them in their hazard assessments?
Have external employees of service companies been informed or instructed?
What measures have been taken or are planned?
A checklist on the flyer, which is easy to fill out, explains the approach to the task and, above all, raises the need for hazard assessments, instructions and, in accordance with the S-T-O principle, also the question of the substitution test anchored in the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances (GefStoffV) (use of calcium-free high-temperature insulations and systems; editor's note).
Control of the duty of investigation, protective measures and personal protective equipment.
It goes on to say: "The Thuringian occupational safety and health authority will randomly the fulfillment of the duty to investigate and check the effectiveness of the protective measures for employees implemented on the basis of the results determined on site for their effectiveness.
In addition, personal protective equipment and the documentation of occupational safety instructions will be checked."
"According to the study, the chromium present in the metal alloys of the turbines reacts with calcium oxide contained in the insulating materials to form carcinogenic chromium(VI) compounds due to the temperatures generated during turbine operation."
Chromate = Chromium (VI)
There is still an assumption among many people concerned that chromates and chromium (VI) compounds have nothing in common. The flyer clearly describes that calcium chromate is a chromium (VI) compound and describes with pictograms the strong toxicity, the possibility of carcinogenesis and the development of genetic effects that can occur with contact or inhalation of chromium (VI) compounds.
Calcium chromate is an environmental toxin
In addition to the classification "H314 - burns and eye damage", "H330 - danger to life if inhaled", "H340 - genetic defects", "H350 - may cause cancer" and "H372 - organ damage", it should also be noted that calcium chromate is also classified as "H410 - acutely toxic with long-term effects on the water balance".
The latter classification in particular means that potentially contaminated insulation waste must be labeled as hazardous waste and disposed of properly, and the penultimate paragraph of the flyer in particular makes it clear what this also means:
"All waste generated during the repair process (including cleaning cloths and used personal protective equipment) must be collected and stored in a suitable, sealed, labeled container until disposal as hazardous waste."
Persistence pays off
the "open letter" came from the editorial office of harmfuldust.com
As already noted in the flyer, the flyer was created due to an "open letter" to the highest state authorities from the summer of 2020 and this letter came from our editorial office after we were sure that something must happen and this assumption was reinforced by the fact that especially the manufacturers of the calcium-containing high-temperature insulation materials and unfortunately also some insulation companies even tried everything in court to ensure that the findings made would never come to the public.
just a first step
The publication of the flyer, which you can download as a PDF file at the end of this article, is by no means the end of our efforts!
We will now inform all other state authorities about the first activities in Thuringia, so that the awareness about the dangers for humans and the environment grows nationwide and accordingly also permanently inform the authorities in other states.
Our activities and the number of views in social networks and especially on LinkedIn help all those affected, who for years were exposed to possible hazards without protection, to get a basis for the future in terms of labor law and accident law and, understandably, are also intended to prevent chromate formation in the high-temperature sector in the future by substituting the insulation systems used so far so that no more harmful substances can be released.
Here you can download the described flyer:
You can reach the homepage of the Thuringian State Office for Consumer Protection by clicking on the image below; on the TLV website you have to scroll down a bit to reach the download area shown (unfortunately, the page is not rolled out in English, but using the browser's translator function should work:
