Cadmium As An Heavy Metal Contamination of Food

SUMMARY Though cadmium has come into widespread use only relatively recently it is quite likely that for many countries this highly toxic metal has been causing food poisoning. Even minute amounts of cadmium are sufficient to cause poisoning and since the metal is soluble in organic acids; It easily enters food stuffs. The extreme danger resulting from ingestion of cadmium in food was high lighted by the "ltai- Yctao" disease out break in Japan in the late 1960 s . This tragedy due once again as in the case of Minamata disease. A market basket survey carried out in Australia in 1976 found a rang of 0.095 . 0.97 mg/kg with a mean of 0.46 mg/kg of cadmium in food family use. Levels in individual food stuffs were: Bread<0.002 · 0.043, p0tatoes <0.002 . 0.05, cahagge < 0.002 . 0.026, apples <0.002 - 0.019, peultey <0.002 . 0.069 minced beef<0.002-0.028,kidncy (sheel")<0.013. 2000, prawns <0.017 · 0.913 mg/kg. The same pattern of low levels in vegetables and fruit with higher among in meat and seafoods has been reported for other countries. List recorded a rang of 0.05 . 3.66 mg/kg in seafoods and 0.19 . 3.49 mg/kg in meat. Lower levels have been reported from the UK, 0.01 . 0.09 mg/kg in meat and ish. The Australian survey of 623 samples of fish found a rang of 0.0 1 . 0.2 mg/kg. The effects of industrial and other forms of contamination arc seen in results for cadmium in rice from Japan where grain from noncontaminated areas had 0.05 . 0.07 mg/kg while from conta minated areas it contained approximately I mg/kg. Cadmium in cows milk is generally less than 1 g/ litre. Human milk contains 0.019 mg/litre Daily uptake of Cadmium from food and beverages in the absence of pollution has been estimated in the UK to bet- btween 10 and 30 g from a 70 kg man. In Sweden, levels or intake have been estimated to be between 10 and 20 g/ day. I llgher figures of 26- 6 I g/ day have been given for 15 . 20 year old males in the USA. The FAO / WHO proris1onal tolerable weekly intake of 03 . 0.4 mg only about 6 percent of the cadmium in food absorbed by body. Simultaneous low levels of other minerals, such as calcium and iron and protein, in the diet may increase cadmium absorption. Cadmium is transported in the blood mostly bound to a low molecular weight probably metallothionein. In the liver and kidneys, the organs in which cadmium is mainly stored. The ingestion of Cadmium in food or in drink can cause symptoms of nausea, vomiting, abdominal craup and headache within minutes of ingestion. Long. term ingestion of cadmium results un serious disease of the kidneys well as of the bone.