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Is Urinary Cadmium a Biomarker of Long-term Exposure in Humans? A Review

  • Metals and Health (A Barchowsky, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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An Erratum to this article was published on 26 October 2016

This article has been updated

Abstract

Cadmium is a naturally-occurring element, and humans are exposed from cigarettes, food, and industrial sources. Following exposure, cadmium accumulates in the kidney and is slowly released into the urine, usually proportionally to the levels found in the kidneys. Cadmium levels in a single spot urine sample have been considered indicative of long-term exposure to cadmium; however, such a potentially exceptional biomarker requires careful scrutiny. In this review, we report good to excellent temporal stability of urinary cadmium (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.66–0.81) regardless of spot urine or first morning void sampling. Factors such as changes in smoking habits and diseases characterized by increased excretion of proteins may produce short-term changes in urinary cadmium levels. We recommend that epidemiologists use this powerful biomarker in prospective studies stratified by smoking status, along with thoughtful consideration of additional factors that can influence renal physiology and cadmium excretion.

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Change history

  • 26 October 2016

    An erratum to this article has been published.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Scott Adams, Alfred Bernard, Esther Garcia-Esquinas, Meian He, Ana Navas-Acien, Peggy Reynolds, and Maria Tellez-Plaza who kindly provided additional data from their studies in order for us to prepare Fig. 2 of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Caterina Vacchi-Suzzi

  2. Stony Brook University School of Medicine, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Danielle Kruse

  3. Analytical Sciences Department, Innovation, Technology and Development RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA

    James Harrington & Keith Levine

  4. Program in Public Health, Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    Jaymie R. Meliker

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  1. Caterina Vacchi-Suzzi
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Correspondence to Caterina Vacchi-Suzzi.

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Caterina Vacchi-Suzzi, Danielle Kruse, James Harrington, Keith Levine, and Jaymie R. Meliker declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Metals and Health

The original version of this article was revised: The presentation of Figure 1 was incorrect. Figure 1 was meaningless as it shows because some of the data in the figure was missing.

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Vacchi-Suzzi, C., Kruse, D., Harrington, J. et al. Is Urinary Cadmium a Biomarker of Long-term Exposure in Humans? A Review. Curr Envir Health Rpt 3, 450–458 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-016-0107-y

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