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Cadmium exposure in inhabitants living in non-polluted area

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 25, page 119 (2015)Cite this article

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Urinary cadmium (Cd) is widely used in epidemiological studies to measure Cd accumulation in the kidney, which is a critical organ for long-term Cd exposure. In general inhabitants, environmental Cd intake occurs through tobacco and foods grown in soil. Adams and Newcomb1 precisely reported the levels of blood and urinary Cd in relation to smoking status using data obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In this article, the authors concluded that the application of blood and urinary Cd for studying Cd exposure should be done with caution, because there is an overlap in relation to exposure period.

I previously reported the effect of Cd exposure on several renal biomarkers for workers by measuring blood and urinary Cd in spot urine, and concluded that urinary metallothionein and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase were more closely associated with urinary Cd than blood Cd in Cd-exposed workers whose mean urinary Cd level was <10 μg per g creatinine.2 Considering biological markers as dependent variables seems important to evaluate the relationship of Cd exposure with age and smoking. Regarding this point, Chaumont et al.3 conducted a baseline study of the background Cd exposure of the general population in Belgium and reported its relationship with urinary protein excretion. Although age, gender, smoking and survey year were used as the covariates for determining the effects of Cd exposure, Adams and Newcomb4 pointed out that dietary Cd intake from food information was not superior to the measurement of urinary Cd for the estimation of long-term Cd exposure. Contrary to their opinion, I suppose that dietary Cd intake exerts an important influence on Cd accumulation in the kidney, and it should be handled as one of the covariates in a baseline study, especially in a Cd-polluted area. This speculation was based on a recent Chinese study, which reported that the geometric mean value of U-Cd was around 2 μg per g creatinine.5 This geometric mean value was 3 to 4 times higher than the values reported by Chaumont et al.

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References

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  1. Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan

    Tomoyuki Kawada

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  1. Tomoyuki Kawada
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Correspondence to Tomoyuki Kawada.

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Kawada, T. Cadmium exposure in inhabitants living in non-polluted area. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 25, 119 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.37

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