Im not going to jump down your throat and mention the heirarchy on controls and that you should refuse to do the work and not bring the more hazardous materials in, as it is not always practical to avoid higher risk work.

And also becuase we do this type of work all the time, covered by a suitable COSHH assessment, using LEV, supplemented by RPE, controls suffient as justified by dust exposure monitoring (with metal analysis specifically looking for chromium).

We have designated grinding booths with suitable extraction containing the majority of the dusts, but also our guys wear P3 respirators (in fact we use a battery powered hood with a face shield of sufficient strength to protect against the mechanical hazard - TH4).

Becuase of the allergic contact dermamtitis risk, in a ddition to the long term health effects of chromium, health surveilance would be a requirement, although I assume you already undertake this given the nature of your work already done.

Although the chromium may increase the risk of the work you are doing that does not mean you cannot do it safely.

What I would do if I were you is revisit your COSHH, look at the level of control you have, and the protection offered by your RPE. If you have any dust monitoring or exposure monitoring data for your current grinding activities using your currently controls and you know the likely concentration of the worst case chromium content your likely to grind in the future, extrapolate your old results to give you an expected exposure level of chromium. (PM if you need a hand with this).

Or I may have gone off at a tangent and all you needed was:
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg346.pdf - Chromium and you

http://www.hseni.gov.uk/...ngineering_workshops.pdf - Health and Safety in Engineering workshops

Thanks for your feedback. It is all useful for me being new to this industry and the company at present having very little controls in place at the moment.

The 'de-chromed' steel is in reference to the mild steel we work with, but sections that are chrome plated currently gets sent to another company to work on so our employees do not work with chrome plating. However the MD is suggesting our grinding department could do this to save costs.....