Study Looks at Cadmium Cancer Link

A new study may give electronics and battery recyclers an additional reason to be vigilant in their handling of nickel-cadmium batteries and other cadmium sources.

Cadmium has long been considered toxic to humans, but a study conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, N.C., may open up a window as to why and how. The report was presented in the monthly journal Nature Genetics.

The study, led by a Dmitry Gordenin, indicates that the existence of cadmium in living cells may inhibit repair mechanisms that normally prevent cancer. Even moderate inhibition of this repair mechanism can affect human health, Gordenin’s team contends.

According to wire service reports on the research project, cadmium was tested on yeast cells along with several other potential agents. The cadmium doses increased the DNA damage in yeast cells by up to 2,000 times.

“The strong mutagenic action of cadmium was observed at concentrations comparable to those found in the environment and at levels that can accumulate in the human body,” the research article’s authors write.

Cadmium is considered a transition metal that is most commonly a byproduct of zinc refining. According to the www.cadmium.org Web site, nickel-cadmium batteries, pigments, coatings, alloys and electronic compounds such as cadmium telluride are the major uses of the metallic element. In recent years, batteries have consumed 70 percent of the cadmium used by manufacturers.

Cadmium is considered an impurity in some other nonferrous metals as well as in fossil fuels, cement and in phosphate fertilizers.

Manufacturers, cadmium producers and trade associations have been setting up a recycling infrastructure for nickel-cadmium batteries, with nearly two dozen global recycling organizations listed on the www.cadmium.org Web site.

There are just five nickel-cadmium battery recycling plants listed on the same Web site, with facilities in France, Germany, South Korea, Sweden and the Inmetco plant in Ellwood City, Pa., in the U.S. The Inmetco plant is run by Toronto-based global metals company Inco Limited.