Cadmium Urine Testing

Heavy Metals · Heavy Metals overview

Urinary cadmium reflects long-term renal cortex burden and is the established body-burden biomarker for occupational cadmium exposure in nickel-cadmium battery manufacture, pigment production, electroplating and brazing/soldering operations.

Why urinary cadmium reflects body burden

Cadmium has a renal cortex half-life of 10–30 years. Urinary cadmium concentration is proportional to renal burden across the working lifetime, making it a true body-burden indicator rather than a shift-exposure measurement.

Reference values

ACGIH BEI is 5 µg/g creatinine for urinary cadmium. β2-microglobulin urinary excretion (>300 µg/g creatinine) is used as an early indicator of cadmium-induced proximal tubular dysfunction.

Confounders

Smoking is a substantial source of cadmium body burden in the general population; smokers have urinary cadmium typically 2–3× non-smokers at the same workplace exposure. Smoking status is recorded against every sample.