Chrome plating is set to be banned over health-related issues, with one of them being the risk of lung cancer. The move might lead to a serious shift in car design.

California regulators want to ban a toxic chrome-plating chemical that gives a signature metallic shine to auto parts and other products.

To be clear, it is not chrome-finished parts that are harmful, but rather the byproducts of chrome plating -- the same industrial waste at the center of the 2000 movie "Erin Brokovich." ...