"California Unveils New Goal for Controversial Carcinogen in Water"

"In a long-awaited move designed to protect people from cancer, California officials on Thursday proposed a new health goal for chromium 6 in drinking water that is thousands of times lower than the amount contaminating some water supplies.

The recommendation culminates a decade of debate among scientists trying to decide what concentration is safe to drink. The contaminant was made famous by Erin Brockovich and a small Mojave Desert town that won the largest tort injury settlement in U.S. history. Water supplies there contained 10,000 times more chromium 6 than the California scientists now recommend as their new goal for protecting the public from cancer....

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reevaluating the national standard but has not yet issued a proposal."

Marla Cone reports for Environmental Health News August 20, 2009.