IARC 1990 - Chromium, nickel, and welding

IARC Volume 49 is a primary agency hazard-evaluation source for chromium, nickel, and welding fumes. Its most important HMI use is speciation-sensitive carcinogenicity context: chromium(VI) is classified as carcinogenic to humans, nickel compounds are classified as carcinogenic to humans, metallic nickel is possibly carcinogenic to humans, and metallic chromium plus chromium(III) compounds are not classifiable on the evidence available in 1990. The monograph also compiles routeable background concentration values for chromium and nickel in drinking-water, foods, beverages, and seafood, but the Working Group explicitly notes that evidence is sparse for carcinogenic hazards from oral exposure to chromium or nickel compounds in foods or potable water.

Key numbers

IARC evaluations:

Chromium in water and foods:

Nickel in water, beverages, foods, and diet:

Selected Danish food nickel table values:

Methods (brief)

The monograph was prepared by an IARC Working Group that met in Lyon on 5-13 June 1989. It is not a new analytical survey. The volume critically reviews exposure data, analytical methods, animal carcinogenicity studies, human epidemiology, toxicokinetics, genetic and related effects, and regulatory status for chromium compounds, nickel compounds, and welding fumes. For chromium and nickel, exposure sections compile published and agency-reported concentrations in occupational air, ambient air, water, soil, food, animal tissues, human tissues, and regulatory standards. The carcinogenicity evaluations follow the IARC qualitative evidence categories described in the monograph preamble.

Implications

This source supports chromium and nickel hazard classification pages, Cr(VI) speciation discipline, and food/water background context. It should not be used as a new HMTc product-occurrence dataset or as evidence that food-route chromium/nickel exposure has the same cancer evidence base as occupational inhalation exposure. The monograph’s own general remarks say evidence was sparse for carcinogenic hazards from oral chromium or nickel exposure in foods or potable water.

The food and beverage values are still useful as compiled background concentration ranges. Downstream synthesis should keep total chromium, chromium(VI), chromium(III), nickel compounds, and metallic nickel separated; IARC’s classifications do not let total chromium in foods stand in for Cr(VI), and they do not make all nickel species equivalent for route, bioavailability, or product-pool purposes.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• chromium
• chromium-hexavalent
• nickel
• water
• vegetables
• leafy-vegetables
• fruit
• wheat
• rice
• oatmeal
• bread
• cocoa
• margarine
• fish
• seafood
• shellfish
• fruit-juice
• bottled-drinking-water
• mineral-water
• root-tuber-vegetables
• leafy-vegetables-other
• non-root-vegetables
• fresh-fruit
• canned-fruit
• fruit-juices-non-apple
• rice-bulk-grain
• flour-non-rice
• breakfast-cereal-non-rice
• bread-and-baked-goods
• nuts-seeds-other
• seafood
• fresh-fish
• shellfish

Verification notes

• Extracted the full 687-page PDF text and close-read the title/citation pages, general remarks, chromium occurrence and regulatory sections, chromium summary/evaluation, nickel water/food/regulatory sections, nickel summary/evaluation, welding summary/evaluation, and the cumulative source metadata.
• The source is an IARC/WHO agency monograph with no DOI in the PDF. The IARC publication page lists Volume 49 under ISBNs 978-92-832-1249-2 and 978-92-832-0249-3.
• The official corrigenda for Volume 49 corrects animal-study table entries and appendix activity-profile identifiers; it does not change the food, water, beverage, dietary-intake, or final IARC classification values captured here.
• mono49 2.pdf is byte-identical to canonical mono49.pdf (sha256 fbd31bbf35d8ae2d0545b5c12e64a9898b317c14ea2bea73a06ba5883d1b2155) and is tracked as a duplicate rather than a second source.

Page history

The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.