Chromium exposure can be in the forms of environmental pollution and occupational exposure. The harmful effects of chromium on the body greatly differ depending on its valence or solubility. Accordingly, the recommended permissible exposure limit for each chromium compound is different.
This study investigated the increase or decrease of distribution and excretion of total chromium exposed simultaneously the soluble Cr+6 and Cr+3 compounds.
There were no difference of total chromium concentration in plasma, red bloods cells, urine, organs between simul-taneously injected and individually injected soluble Cr+6 and Cr+3 compounds. The chromium clearances in urine also showed that there were two phases in the two groups. In the first phase, biological half lives of the total chromium of the two groups have been similar within 24hr., but in the second phase, biological half life of the group injected simultane-ously was 62.7 hr. and was less than that of the other group´s 188.3 hr. The average concentration of total chro- mium in plasma was same with the control, and that of RBCs was 0.218 n ㏖/㎖ and was slightly increased in comparison with 0.121 n ㏖/㎖ of the control, which was not statistically significant.
As a result, there were no differences of distribution and excretion of chromium between the group exposed sim-ultaneously and the other group exposed separately the soluble Cr+6 and Cr+3 compounds. The biological half life of chromium of the former group in urine was less than that of the other group.
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