Carcinogenicity of Cadmium

Abstract

Cadmium has been thought to be carcinogenic for these ten years. The present author reviewed 98 papers on its carcinogenicity. Ten papers describing epidemiological studies on cadmium workers, re-evaluated by the present author, do not derive a solid conclusion that cadmium is carcinogenic. However, there still exists a certain probability that cadmium is a weak carcinogenic substance in the human, because of some data on chromosomal aberrations in cadmium workers, tumorigenesis at the site of cadmium injection in animals, and Leydig cell tumor formation in animals given subcutaneous injections of cadmium. © 1982, Japan Society for Occupational Health. All rights reserved.