Cadmium is considered an important toxicant of major environmental and occupational concern. It can contaminate water, soil, and the atmosphere through coal mining, beneficiation, combustion, etc. This paper is based on the published literature, especially those data reported during the recent 10 years, including 2999 individual samples from 116 coalfields or mines in 26 provinces in China. The...

Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, are commonly reared in estuaries where they are exposed to anthropogenic pollution. Much research has been made on the toxicity of cadmium to aquatic organisms because the compound recurrently contaminates their environment. Our study examined the influence of cadmium on aneuploidy level (lowered chromosome number in a percentage of somatic cells) and hemocyt...

Background: A study was undertaken to determine the relation between urinary cadmium levels and lung function in a nationally representative cohort of current, former, and never smokers in the US. Urinary cadmium levels reflect the total body burden of cadmium. Methods: The following data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were analysed: urinary cadmium (adjusted fo...

In a preliminary study, ewes received daily oral cadmium chloride administrations and cadmium concentration was measured in blood and tissues. A pharmacokinetic analysis of cadmium disposition was then carried out in ewes administered cadmium chloride iv and, 21 months later, orally in the same ewes. Pharmacokinetic parameters were analysed using a 3-compartment open model. The systemic availab...

Mean blood cadmium (B-Cd) concentrations are two- to threefold higher in smokers than in nonsmokers. The basis for this phenomenon is not well understood. We conducted a detailed, multifaceted study of cadmium exposure in smokers. Groups were older smokers (62±4 years, n = 25, 20% male) and nonsmokers (62±3 years, n = 16, 31% male). Each subject's cigarettes were machine smoked, generating indi...

Cadmium is an environmental toxicant whose exposure is associated with multiple human pathologies. To prevent cadmium-induced toxicity, organisms produce a variety of detoxification molecules. In response to cadmium, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans increases the steady-state levels of several hundred genes, including two metallothioneins, mtl-1 and mtl-2, and the cadmium-specific response g...

The health effects of low-level chronic exposure to cadmium are increasingly recognized. To improve the risk assessment, it is essential to know the relation between cadmium intake, body burden, and biomarker levels of cadmium. We combined a physiologically-based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model for cadmium with a data set from healthy kidney donors to re-estimate the model parameters and to test the...

BACKGROUND Cadmium is a metal used in the zinc, copper and steel industries, and in the manufacture of electric batteries and solar cells. Acute cadmium poisoning is characterized by irritation of the respiratory tract, while in chronic poisoning the main target organ is the renal tubule. AIMS We report a patient with chronic work overexposure to cadmium, who presented a IgA mesangial glomeru...

Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd(2+)) affect microbial metabolic processes. Consequently, bacteria adapt by adjusting their cellular machinery. We have investigated the dose-dependent growth effects of Cd(2+) on Rhizobium alamii, an exopolysaccharide (EPS)-producing bacterium that forms a biofilm on plant roots. Adsorption isotherms show that the EPS of R. alamii binds cadmium in competition wi...

The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) may be used as a sensitive biological indicator for continuously monitoring trace quantities of toxic heavy metals in aquatic systems. A river water system polluted with cadmium was simulated while other factors of temperature, day-night cycle, water quality, and light intensity remained constant. When the water hyacinth is maintained in river water con...