Editorial: Los Angeles is the chrome capital, but chemical behind the shine is too dangerous to keep using

Southern California has the nation’s highest concentration of chrome platers, the metal shops that dip car bumpers, plumbing fixtures, airplane parts and other products in large industrial tanks to coat them with a shiny, mirror-like finish.

But the chemical they have long used, hexavalent chromium, is a serious health hazard, with no safe level of exposure. It’s a pollutant that’s about 500 times more carcinogenic than the particulate matter in diesel exhaust, and its release into neighboring communities has been a problem for decades. More than two-thirds