home edit2 whole TSD November 2002 PDF format - OEHHA

CADMIUM
CAS No: 7440-43-9
I. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES (From HSDB (1998) except as noted)
Molecular weight 112.41
Boiling point 765 ºC
Melting point 321 ºC
Vapor pressure 1 mm Hg at 394 ºC
Air concentration conversion 1 ppm = 1.8 mg/m 3 (from NIOSH, 1994)
II.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT VALUES
Unit Risk Factor: 4.2 E-3 (µg/m 3 ) -1
Slope Factor: 1.5 E+1 (mg/kg-day) -1
[Human occupational exposure lung cancer data (Thun et al., 1985), Poisson regression model
fitted by CDHS (1986), resulting model parameters applied to California life table to calculate
cancer risk, reevaluated by CDHS (1990).]
III.
CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS
Human Studies
US EPA has reviewed the epidemiologic evidence on health effects due to cadmium exposure (US
EPA, 1985). Most of the studies were occupational mortality studies in which cause-specific death
rates were compared to expected rates based on a standard population, with the ratio of observed to
expected deaths yielding a standardized mortality ratio (SMR). Outcomes examined in these
investigations included cancer of the respiratory tract, prostate, bladder, kidney, and gastrointestinal
tract. The results were not entirely consistent, but the evidence for an effect of cadmium exposure was
strongest for lung cancer, prostate cancer and renal cancer.
Lemen et al. (1976) found an excess of prostate cancer deaths among 292 workers employed for
greater than two years in a job with potential cadmium exposure. The excess was significant if the
analysis assumed a 20-year latency period. However, a follow-up study of this cohort by Thun et al.
(1985) uncovered no new deaths due to prostatic cancer. The authors suggested that given the
generally nonfatal nature of the disease, mortality studies frequently may not be sensitive enough to
detect a potentially real association with incidence of prostate cancer. Sorahan and Waterhouse (1983,
1985) followed up a 1967 report by Kipling and Waterhouse which had found a highly significant
excess incidence of prostatic cancer. Both the incidence report (Sorahan and Waterhouse, 1985) and
the mortality study (Sorahan and Waterhouse, 1983) found no significantly elevated risk if the original
four index cases were excluded. However, inclusion of these cases in the analysis yielded a highly
significant association. For mortality, using cumulative years of high exposure to cadmium, the p-value
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