Impact of hexavalent chromium in leather goods and chrome-tanned waste on human health and to the environment

Abstract

Issue of waste, its formation, disposal and possible secondary processing as one of current global problems is dealt in this paper. Hazardous waste represents a potential threat to the environment and human health. The paper is focused on an area of waste containing hexavalent chromium arising especially from leather industry. Hexavalent chromium the element occurring in various amounts in tannery waste is classified as a carcinogen. Its repeated exposure to human organism has hazardous impact. New possible risk connected with the use of disinfectants on shoes containing oxidizers have been revealed and is introduced. The menace consequences are based on the known potency of conversion trivalent to hexavalent chromium in leather in different conditions. The oxidation is supported by experimental data gained by UVvisible spectrophotometry. Although the level of chromium in various ambient is controlled, it is often a total amount of chromium i.e. trivalent together with hexavalent chromium what can be indeed misleading from the hazardousness point of view. An innovative method Raman spectroscopy is proposed for identification of the valence state of chromium contained in investigated material. Raman spectroscopy renders an inner structure of a matter hence it has an ability to recognize the form of an element. Finally the process of collagen protein hydrolysis gained from tannery wastes as a mean of secondary processing of waste material is introduced. The final product of the process is intended to be used as inducer of resistance for crop plants.