Cadmium inhalation and male reproductive toxicity.

Cadmium is a highly toxic element that is cumulative and has a long biological half-life in mammals. The severe toxicity of cadmium in man has been known for more than 100 years. Despite the knowledge that cadmium is toxic, only 20 human cases of poisoning via ingestion were recorded prior to 1941, whereas in the ensuing five-year period more than 680 cases of cadmium poisonings from accidental oral ingestion of this metal were documented. Some of the recorded effects of exposure to cadmium in laboratory animals include renal tubular damage, placental and testicular necrosis, structural and functional liver damage, osteomalacia, testicular tumors, teratogenic malformations, anemia, hypertension, pulmonary edema, chronic pulmonary emphysema, and induced deficiencies of iron, copper, and zinc. Some of these effects have also been observed in human after accidental exposures to cadmium oxide fumes and are characteristic of the syndrome described in Japan as Itai Itai disease in which ingestion of cadmium is the inciting chemical.