Cadmium is a naturally occurring toxic metal with common exposure in industrial workplaces, plant soils, and from smoking.
Due to its low permissible exposure in humans, overexposure may occur even in situations where only trace quantities of cadmium are found.
Symptoms of inflammation may start hours after the exposure and include cough, dryness and irritation of the nose and throat, headache, dizziness, weakness, fever, chills, and chest pain.
[citation needed] Complications of cadmium poisoning include cough, anemia, and kidney failure (possibly leading to death).
[citation needed] Spinal and leg pain is common, and a waddling gait often develops due to bone deformities caused by the long-term cadmium exposure.
Environmental exposure to cadmium has been particularly problematic in Japan where many people have consumed rice that was grown in cadmium-contaminated irrigation water.
The general population and people living near hazardous waste sites may be exposed to cadmium in contaminated food, dust, or water from unregulated or accidental releases.
Plants may contain small or moderate amounts in non-industrial areas, but high levels may be found in the liver and kidneys of adult animals.
Hydrogen peroxide can also convert thiol groups on proteins into nonfunctional sulfonic acids and is also capable of directly attacking nuclear DNA.
[20] Increased concentrations of urinary beta-2 microglobulin can be an early indicator of kidney dysfunction in persons chronically exposed to low but excessive levels of environmental cadmium.
Under some circumstances, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration requires screening for kidney damage in workers with long-term exposure to high levels of cadmium.
The ACGIH biological exposure indices for blood and urine cadmium levels are 5 μg/L and 5 μg/g creatinine, respectively, in random specimens.
[24] For long-term exposure, considerable evidence indicates that the traditional chelator EDTA can reduce a body's overall cadmium load.
For patients with extremely fragile kidneys, limited evidence suggests that sauna sweat may differentially excrete the metal.
[24] In a mass cadmium poisoning in Japan, a marked prevalence for skeletal complications has been noted for older, postmenopausal women, however, the cause of the phenomenon is not fully understood, and is under investigation.
Current research has pointed to general malnourishment, as well as poor calcium metabolism relating to the women's age.
[27] An experiment during the early 1960s involving the spraying of cadmium over Norwich was declassified in 2005 by the UK government, as documented in a BBC News article.