Ford Explorer chromic acid plating facility (1990s environmental retrofit)

Mid-1990s, Ford built an environmentally controlled chromic acid plating shop for Ford Explorers at a couple hundred million dollars. Used to mark the end of the chrome-plating gap that began in 1982.

What's the problem with these two? Anybody know what the problem with the two that contain chromic acid is? Environmental. CrO3 — that's Erin Brockovich. That's what she got all that money for: those kids who had liver cancer and birth defects and other things in California. Chromic acid is a carcinogen, one of the most potent carcinogens we know. The reason you didn't have chrome bumpers on automobiles in the United States between about 1982 and 1995 — why? Because people in the chrome-plating shops did a study and showed they had a much higher incidence of cancer. So they shut down the shops. It wasn't until the mid-90s that Ford built an environmentally protected chromic acid plating shop for Ford Explorers. Cost them a couple hundred million dollars with all the controls. No one's going to be breathing chromic acid fumes in a modern electroplating shop. But it took about 15 years to design the controls, so now we're back to doing chromium plating.