The chemical star of 'Erin Brockovich': Villain or Hero?
A Reality Check on Product Claims
By Keith Epstein
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 11, 2000
Julia Roberts plays the heroine in Hollywood’s current blockbuster, “Erin Brockovich,” with meticulous attention to accuracy, right down to her cleavage, hot pants, foul mouth and reliance on an unusual day care provider–a biker boyfriend with ponytail, tattoos and silver bracelets.
Erin Brockovich, a brash, brainy single mom with no legal training, indeed identified hundreds of people in a California desert town who were suffering ailments ranging from cancers to severe digestive disorders, and helped them win a $333 million settlement from an energy company they had accused of poisoning their water.
Both in real life and in the movie, the supposed villain–a common element called chromium–is an ambiguous character. In different forms it can be a force for health and growth, or cause sickness and death. Chromium is found in food, many drinking water supplies and nearly everyone’s body. Brewer’s yeast and wheat germ contain it, and so do most multivitamin pills. Weight lifters, other athletes and dieters consume it in supplements, and it pollutes “Superfund” sites. One form of chromium may help diabetics, while more than 1 million American workers, unshielded by full government protections as they are exposed to another form, are vulnerable to such hazards as ulcers on the skin, perforations in the nose and lung cancer.
Let’s start with the bad guy: Studies have long demonstrated the ills of chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, which is used in steel, paint, cement, paper, wood preservatives and in numerous industrial processes. In the movie, chromium 6 seeped from a natural gas company’s holding ponds into drinking water. In real life, the same chemical is widespread in tap water, though rarely at unsafe levels. Of more concern are places such as the Washington Navy Yard, where chromium 6 was used to build ships. While investigators don’t know if there is a chromium 6 problem at that site, they are looking for possible groundwater contamination there. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry considers chromium 6 to be among the nation’s 20 biggest health threats from pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified it as cancer-causing in 1984. “It’s harmful. That’s been clear for decades,” said Herman Gibb, an EPA epidemiologist who studies the effects and assesses the risks of chromium 6.
Researchers know exposure causes lung cancer, persistent skin rashes and ulcers, heavy nosebleeds and perforation of the septum–a hole in the cartilage of the nose. But most of their proof comes from studies of workers who have inhaled the substance rather than those who have swallowed it in drinking water.
“The movie parallels the fact that we know hexavalent chromium presents some real health concerns. But we know that from occupational data, mostly,” said Gibb, assistant director of the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Assessment. “We know very little about what risks would be in drinking water.”
Unlike substances such as arsenic, for which separate data support the hazards of lung cancer from both inhalation and ingestion, the EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water acknowledges that “there is no evidence that chromium in drinking water has the potential to cause cancer from lifetime exposures.” Yet “to protect the public we assume hexavalent chromium in drinking water would present health concerns,” said Gibb. “Sometimes we have to make an assumption from the human health standpoint.”
The ill effects of chromium-tainted water are not solely inferred from studies on workers. Research on rats, mice and dogs suggest the “potential” for damage to liver, kidney, circulatory and nerve tissues, and perhaps fetal damage and stillbirths. Meanwhile, there’s little substantiation of some of the ill effects featured in “Erin Brockovich.” For example, said Gibb, “effects with uterine cancer have not been demonstrated.”
Your water? Most likely, it’s safe. While EPA surveys demonstrate that chromium 6 is widespread in municipal systems, largely due to pollution and plumbing materials, it rarely occurs at levels higher than 35 micrograms (mcg) per liter, about one-third of the EPA limit of 100 mcg.
Workers regularly exposed to chromium 6 include painters, welders, printers, electroplaters and people who treat wood with pesticides. Comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for chromium 6 exposure are probably a few years away–delayed less by science than bureaucratic workload.
On the other hand, chromium 3, also known as trivalent chromium, is largely seen as a good actor. A natural metal found in water, rocks, animals, soil, plants and airborne dust, it helps the body use sugar properly and assists in the breakdown of proteins and fats. The government considers it an “essential” nutritional trace element. This conclusion was reached accidentally when hospital patients, unable to eat by mouth and nourished through their veins, developed high sugar levels, like diabetics. Given chromium, they recovered.
But how much does a person need? “We don’t know,” said Henry Lukaski, a lead researcher at the Human Nutrition Research Center of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Quantities in the body are so small and hard to measure that “we don’t know how it works, how much we need, or who would benefit from a supplement.” The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences (in a 1989 report due to be updated) considers 50 to 200 mcg of chromium daily “safe and adequate.” Multivitamins often provide up to 200 mcg, though Lukaski said the typical person seems fine with 30 mcg per day from a normal diet.
But even the “good” chromium has been implicated as a potential health problem. Last month, University of Alabama chemist John B. Vincent said his research suggested chromium-picolinate supplements, which mix chromium with an organic molecule that helps the body more readily absorb the chromium, can split strands of DNA, making mutations and cancers possible. These supplements are often taken by weight lifters and dieters, but “based on my research,” Vincent said, “I sure wouldn’t take it.”
Vincent’s test tube findings are provocative, but long-term studies on animals or people will be needed to demonstrate the same effect on living cells.
Meantime, chromium-picolinate supplements are being touted on the Internet via sites aimed at bodybuilders and dieters. Recent pitches promote “Thermo-Lift Protein Shakes,” which contain the supplement, as “the greatest-tasting way to lose weight,” and “Chromax II” as a way to “help you lose that fat and look good.” Such assertions resemble “lose the fat, keep the muscle” slogans that were banned by the Federal Trade Commission in 1996. Nutrition 21, which holds exclusive patent rights to chromium-picolinate supplements, was charged with making these unsupported claims in 1996. The company is more careful now than are the retailers who are selling the firm’s products on the Web. Nutrition 21 acknowledges on its own Web site that there are “inconsistencies in study results,” some of which show that the supplements have “no effect on body composition.” A Web site of the “Chromium Information Bureau,” which identifies itself as a “not-for-profit educational organization” but was created by Nutrition 21, cites the need for “two or more well-designed and fairly large studies before we will have any clear answer.”
With diet and exercise, “people may be losing more fat and maintaining their muscle,” said Jim Komorowski, product developer at Nutrition 21′s parent company, AMBI Inc. Then he added: “We don’t claim everyone will get these results.”
Initial supporting studies, which were not published in peer-reviewed journals, focused on small numbers of users, including college weight lifters and football players already endowed with muscle. USDA-sponsored research may now prove more conclusive. One study involves 100 women, representative of the U.S. adult female population, who are to be given varying amounts of chromium-picolinate while they engage in their usual activities and undertake no additional exercise. Researchers will look for differences in nutritional status, muscle, fat and brain function.
Because chromium 3 is believed to help insulin open cells to sugar from the blood, it may eventually prove helpful for diabetics. One of the studies most suggestive of this benefit, however, was conducted in China, where obesity is less common. Would American diabetics react the same way? Several studies aim to find out. But a National Institutes of Health workshop on diabetes and chromium last November concluded that, so far, benefits do not clearly outweigh the risks and “current data does not warrant the use of chromium supplements.” Observed Vincent: “There’s still a lot to be done before conclusions can be drawn.”
Keith Epstein, formerly an investigative reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is a freelance writer in Virginia.
Chromium, Fat and Muscle: The Facts
WHAT IT IS
A mineral common in food, air, soil and water, chromium exists in several molecular forms. Natural chromium 3 is essential for health, while industrial chromium 6 causes cancer and other ill effects.
THE BELIEF
Chromium 3 combined with picolinate can benefit people who wish to lose weight and add muscle. It’s also thought that chromium can help those who suffer from diabetes.
THE MARKET
Chromium supplements account for about $150 million in retail sales annually. In the United States, only calcium is a better selling mineral supplement.
QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS
“The most powerful fat-loss supplement available.” (www.thermoliftweightloss.com) “It will help you lose that fat and look good.” (www.bodybuilding.com)
WHAT THE SCIENCE SHOWS
In low amounts, chromium helps the body use sugar and break down proteins and fats. Some studies suggest benefits to glucose-intolerant and type 2 diabetes patients. The inclusion of up to 200 mcg daily in multivitamins has not been proven as a risk or benefit. Some human studies showed no benefit or effect on body composition. In others, pigs, lambs, rats, chickens and college athletes were leaner and less fatty. Recent, inconclusive study of chromium-picolinate suggests possible DNA damage.
WHAT’S NEXT
A study following women engaged in routine activities, to examine the effects of varying levels of chromium. Also, animal research is being conducted on chromium’s impact on DNA and cells. Other studies are looking at possible benefits for people with diabetes.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
