The Periodic Table of Scarcity and Abundance Cd Cadmium
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Cadmium: Harm to health and the planet

What harm does getting and using it do to bodies and the environment?

Making cadmium emits little carbon, but the metal is a poison. It harms the kidneys and bones and causes lung cancer. Pollution from a mine caused itai-itai disease in Japan, the most severe known case of cadmium poisoning.

Last updated 3 October 2026.

Environmental footprint

Emissions

3kg CO₂e per kg1

2008. Cradle to gate, weighted 50/50 between primary and semiconductor-grade cadmium (authors' assumption); primary cadmium alone is 1.4 kg CO2e/kg. Price-based allocation from zinc refining.

Range 1.8 kg CO₂e per kg to 5.1 kg CO₂e per kg. We found no newer open life-cycle figure. Its authors used ecoinvent 2.2 inventories, weighted by 2008 production.

Energy

53MJ per kg1

2008. Cumulative energy demand, same weighting as the emissions figure; primary cadmium alone is 27.5 MJ/kg.

Range 28 MJ per kg to 120 MJ per kg. We found no newer open life-cycle figure. Its authors used ecoinvent 2.2 inventories, weighted by 2008 production.

In a 2014 life-cycle study, Nuss and Eckelman put greenhouse gas emissions at about 3.0 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of cadmium. The range is 1.8 to 5.1. Energy use is about 53 megajoules per kilogram. The authors assume half primary metal and half semiconductor-grade metal. Primary cadmium alone is 1.4 kilograms of CO2 equivalent and 27.5 megajoules per kilogram1. They split the burden of a zinc refinery by the value of each metal, so cadmium gets a small share of it.

The larger problem is cadmium released into the environment. WHO lists the human sources: mining, smelting of non-ferrous metals, burning fossil fuels, incinerating waste, making phosphate fertilizers, and recycling plated steel and electronic waste2. In many countries more cadmium falls on farm soil from the air than leaves it, so levels in soils and crops slowly rise2.

In a 1998 assessment, Van Assche used European data from the early 1990s. On these data, phosphate fertilizers were 34% of human cadmium exposure and fossil fuel burning 22%. Cadmium products themselves added about 1%3. USGS adds that recovering cadmium from zinc concentrates reduces the pollution of mine and concentrator wastes3.

Health and the body

WHO says cadmium is toxic to the kidney, the skeleton and the lungs, and is a human carcinogen2.

The kidney is the main target. Cadmium builds up there, and its biological half-life is 10 to 35 years2. A damaged kidney lets small proteins into the urine. When this loss rises more than tenfold, the damage cannot be reversed2. High intake also disturbs calcium metabolism. People exposed in polluted areas can get softened or brittle bones2. Breathing cadmium oxide fumes can cause fatal lung inflammation2. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classes cadmium and its compounds as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)2.

For people who do not smoke, food is the main source. Rice grown on polluted soil can hold high levels2. A joint FAO and WHO committee set a provisional tolerable intake of 25 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per month in 2010. The WHO guideline for drinking water is 3 micrograms per litre2. In US workplaces the limit is 5 micrograms per cubic metre of air over an eight-hour shift4.

Itai-itai disease (“ouch-ouch” disease) is the most severe form of chronic cadmium poisoning. Cadmium from the Kamioka mine polluted rice paddies along the Jinzu River in Toyama, Japan. Most patients were women farmers. They suffered softened bones, fractures and severe pain5. For what happened to them later, see the society chapter.

Sources

  1. 1

    P. Nuss and M.J. Eckelman (PLOS ONE), 2014. Life Cycle Assessment of Metals: A Scientific Synthesis , Supporting Information S1, table S38 (Cd rows) and table S8.

    Cradle-to-gate energy and greenhouse gas figures for cadmium.

    • Cd TOTAL 2.279E+07 100% 53.0 28.1 118 1.2 3.0 1.8 5.1
    • Cd TOTAL 2.279E+07 100% 53.0 28.1 118
    • Cadmium, primary, at plant/GLO U reallocated … 27.5 … 1.4
  2. 2

    World Health Organization, 2019. Exposure to cadmium: a major public health concern .

    Sources of exposure, health effects, WHO guideline values and the IARC classification.

    • mining, smelting and refining of nonferrous metals,8 fossil fuel combustion, incineration of municipal waste (especially cadmium-containing batteries and plastics), manufacture of phosphate fertilizers, and recycling of cadmium-plated steel scrap and electric and electronic waste
    • in many countries, atmospheric deposition of cadmium on arable soils exceeds its elimination, resulting in a gradual increase in cadmium levels in soils and crops
    • Cadmium exerts toxic effects on the kidney, the skeletal system and the respiratory system and is classified as a human carcinogen
    • Cadmium accumulates primarily in the kidneys and its biological half-life in humans is 10-35 years
    • an increase of more than an order of magnitude causes irreversible tubular dysfunction
    • high intake of cadmium can lead to disturbances in calcium metabolism
    • Osteomalacia (softening of the bones) and osteoporosis may occur in those exposed through living or working in cadmium-contaminated areas
    • high inhalation exposure to cadmium oxide fumes results in acute pneumonitis with pulmonary oedema, which may be lethal
    • classified cadmium and cadmium compounds as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)
    • food constitutes the main environmental source of cadmium for non-smokers
    • some crops, such as rice, can accumulate high concentrations of cadmium if grown on cadmium-polluted soil
    • a provisional tolerable monthly intake for cadmium in 2010 of 25 μg/kg body weight
    • The guideline for cadmium in drinking-water is 3 μg/l
  3. 3

    W.C. Butterman and J. Plachy, U.S. Geological Survey, 2002. Mineral Commodity Profiles: Cadmium (Open-File Report 02-238) , pp. 3-24.

    History, minerals, refining process, uses by period, environment and price history to 2000.

    • (Van Assche, 1998). The results of the assessment, which are shown in figure 5, were based on mass transfer data from Europe in the early 1990s
    • (34.0%) Phosphate f ertilizers (22.0%) Combution of f ossil f uels (1.0%) Incineration of wastes (1.0%) Cadmium applications
    • reduces the toxic pollution of mine and concentrator wastes that would otherwise occur
  4. 4

    U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (eCFR), 2025. 29 CFR 1910.1027, Cadmium , Paragraphs (b) and (c).

    US workplace exposure limit of 5 micrograms per cubic metre.

    • in excess of five micrograms per cubic meter of air (5 μg/m 3)
  5. 5

    T. Sasaki, H. Horiguchi and others (Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine), 2024. A suspected case of "itai-itai disease" in a cadmium-polluted area in Akita prefecture, Japan , Introduction.

    Cause and symptoms of itai-itai disease; 201 recognized patients by 2022.

    • rice paddy fields were heavily polluted by Cd derived from the Kamioka mine upstream
    • most of whom were female farmers … They developed osteomalacia, severe pain throughout the body