OEHHA Prop 65 — Chromium (Hexavalent Compounds) Listing
Summary
Chromium (hexavalent compounds) is listed under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) under two separate findings. It was listed as a carcinogen on February 27, 1987, through the Labor Code listing mechanism, which incorporates substances identified as carcinogens by authoritative bodies including the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It was separately listed as a developmental toxicant, a female reproductive toxicant, and a male reproductive toxicant on December 19, 2008, following a determination by the state’s qualified experts on the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee.
This is a chemical-listing and product-labeling instrument, not a food contaminant limit. A Proposition 65 listing triggers a warning obligation for businesses whose products expose California consumers above the applicable safe-harbor level; it does not set a maximum permitted concentration in any food matrix. The associated safe-harbor levels are a cancer No Significant Risk Level (NSRL) of 0.001 µg/day by the inhalation route and a reproductive-toxicity Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) of 8.2 µg/day by the oral route.
Listing record
| Endpoint | Listing date | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Cancer | February 27, 1987 | Labor Code (authoritative-bodies mechanism) |
| Developmental toxicity | December 19, 2008 | State’s qualified experts (DART Identification Committee) |
| Female reproductive toxicity | December 19, 2008 | State’s qualified experts (DART Identification Committee) |
| Male reproductive toxicity | December 19, 2008 | State’s qualified experts (DART Identification Committee) |
Safe-harbor levels
| Safe-harbor level | Value | Route |
|---|---|---|
| No Significant Risk Level (NSRL), cancer | 0.001 µg/day | Inhalation |
| Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL), reproductive toxicity | 8.2 µg/day | Oral |
The cancer NSRL is route-specific to inhalation, consistent with the carcinogenicity of hexavalent chromium being best characterized for the inhalation route. The reproductive-toxicity MADL of 8.2 µg/day applies to the oral route. As with all Proposition 65 safe-harbor levels, these are exposure thresholds below which a business is not required to provide a warning; they are not maximum permitted concentrations in any product or food, and they are derived through the Proposition 65 statutory framework rather than through food-safety reference-value methodology such as an EFSA tolerable intake or an EPA reference dose.
Scope and matrix distinction
A Proposition 65 listing governs warning obligations for consumer-product and workplace exposures in California. It is not a food maximum level and not a drinking-water standard; the enforceable California drinking-water limit for hexavalent chromium is the separate State Water Resources Control Board MCL covered at California — Maximum Contaminant Level for Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water. Where the wiki cites this listing, it is cited as a hazard-identification and labeling instrument, with the carcinogen and reproductive-toxicity findings attributed to their respective listing dates and mechanisms, and with the safe-harbor levels labeled by route.
Wiki pages updated on ingest
- Chromium, Hexavalent
- Chromium
- California Proposition 65 — Hexavalent Chromium Listing and Safe-Harbor Levels
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.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ae6c129 | 2026-07-01 | feat(auth): large login + role-based signup screens (design, burgundy) |