Cadmium
Cadmium builds up in the kidneys over decades. For most people the biggest source by far is tobacco smoke. Smokers carry more than twice as much as non-smokers.
Sources
- Smoking: the main source for smokers, and second-hand smoke adds to it.
- Food: the main source for non-smokers. Rice and vegetables grown in contaminated soil, shellfish and offal (kidney, liver) contain more. The body absorbs only a small fraction.
- Work: battery making and recycling, metal plating, soldering, welding, pigments and smelting. Workplace air can contain thousands of times more than normal air.
Effects
- Kidneys: slow damage to the kidney filters, picked up as protein in the urine.
- Bones: thinning and fractures (osteoporosis).
- Lungs: breathing in fumes at work can cause acute lung injury; long-term exposure raises lung cancer risk.
Testing
- Urine cadmium reflects the total built up in the body. Blood cadmium reflects recent exposure.
- Testing makes sense for workplace exposure or kidney problems with a likely source, not as a routine screen.
Reduce exposure
- Quit smoking. It’s the single biggest change.
- Eat a varied diet rather than large amounts of one food.
- Follow workplace safety rules, use protective equipment and change before going home.
See your GP if
- You work with cadmium and haven’t had health monitoring
- You’ve been told you have protein in your urine or early kidney problems and smoke or work with metals
- You want help to quit smoking
Weird history
- In Japan’s Jinzu River basin, mining waste contaminated rice fields. From the early 1900s, many local women developed agonising bone and kidney disease, called itai-itai (“it hurts, it hurts”). It was one of Japan’s major pollution diseases.
Common questions
What is the main source of cadmium?
For smokers, tobacco smoke. For non-smokers, food, especially rice and vegetables grown in contaminated soil, shellfish and offal.
What does cadmium do to the body?
It builds up in the kidneys over decades and can cause kidney damage and weaker bones. Breathing in cadmium fumes at work can damage the lungs.
How is cadmium tested?
Urine cadmium shows long-term build-up; blood cadmium shows recent exposure. Testing is mainly useful for workplace exposure.
Does quitting smoking reduce cadmium?
Yes. It stops the main source, though cadmium already in the kidneys leaves very slowly.
Helpful resources
- Quitline 13 7848Free support to quit smoking.
- Poisons Information Centre: 13 11 2624/7 advice on poisoning anywhere in Australia. Free.
Evidence and more information
maladywise.com/cadmium/