Cadmium is a silver-white solid, tinged with blue, soft and malleable metal that naturally occurs on Earth. It is usually found as a mineral combined with other elements such as oxygen (cadmium oxide), chlorine (cadmium chloride), or sulfur (cadmium sulfate, cadmium sulfide). All soils and rocks, including coal and mineral fertilizers, contain some of this element.
Cadmium does not corrode easily, which makes it ideal for many uses in various sectors. It’s used in the manufacturing of some batteries and solar cells, electroplating, and silver soldering. As well as pigments, metal coatings, and plastics.
Most of the cadmium produced today is obtained from zinc byproducts and recovered from spent nickel-cadmium batteries.
Why is cadmium a hazardous substance?
This heavy metal is a hazardous substance that, depending on its concentration, can be toxic, both for humans and the environment. Concerning the environment, it strongly adsorbs organic matter in soils. And when cadmium is present in soils it can be extremely dangerous, as the uptake through food will increase. Soils that are acidified enhance their uptake by plants. This is a potential danger to the animals that are dependent upon the plants for survival. In this sense, when cadmium accumulates in crop areas it can potentially pose a risk to crop human health too.
When eaten, large amounts of this heavy metal can severely irritate the stomach and cause vomiting and diarrhea. Breathing high levels of cadmium damages people’s lungs and can cause death. Exposure to low levels of this substance in air, food, water, and particularly in tobacco smoke over time may build up in the kidneys and cause kidney disease and fragile bones. Additionally, cadmium is considered a cancer-causing agent.
Therefore, in job sites in which elements containing cadmium are present, safety measures should be taken, otherwise, workers may be harmed from exposure to it. Anyway, the level of exposure depends upon the dose, duration, and work being done. For last, of the workers potentially exposed to cadmium, construction workers involved in demolition should.
Where can cadmium be found?
Regarding the day-to-day occurrence, it can be found in food, since it is absorbed into plants and animals that people eat, such as in cigarette smoke.
Regarding occupational exposure, workers can be exposed to cadmium by breathing in dust, fumes, or mists containing this heavy metal. Cadmium or its compounds can also get on the skin or contaminate clothing. The presence of this substance that leads to worker exposure can occur in all industry sectors but mostly in manufacturing construction and demolition.
In this sense, the presence of this substance is usual in the following activities:
- Electroplating
- Metal machining
- Hot work operations with metals (e.g. welding, soldering, gouging, brazing, flame cutting)
- Painting
- Industrial processing with minerals/metals at elevated temperatures (e.g. smelters, furnaces, refineries, coke ovens)
- High energy work-up of substances bound in materials or articles (e.g. hot rolling/forming, grinding, mechanical cutting, drilling or sanding)
- Incineration of municipal waste
Moreover, it can be found in the elements listed below:
- Ni-Cd batteries
- Fabricated metal products
- Electrical, electronic and optical equipment
- Machinery and vehicles
- Furniture
- Plastics
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This article can be found in the 2022 edition of the document. Find the full publication here:
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