The Growing Concern of Cadmium
What is cadmium? Why is cadmium so harmful? What is the current regulation around cadmium? How is my business affected by this? With the recent cadmium scare to consumers, resulting in items being pulled from the shelves, these may be a few questions you have churning in your mind. As a lab that is equipped to test Consumer Goods, Toys, and Childcare Articles, which includes cadmium testing, we’d like shed some light on this particular topic.
What is Cadmium?
Cadmium is a soft, malleable, ductile, and toxic, bluish-white metal or grey white powder. [1] It is a heavy metal similar to lead, and both are in the group of post-transition or "poor" metals. As a result of the ban on lead, the drop in demand for Ni-Cd batteries, and the slumping market price; some manufacturers have switched to using cadmium. CPSC Commission Chairman Inez Tenebaum stated, in her speech to the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Toy Safety Initiative, "I would highly encourage all of you to ensure
that toy manufacturers and children’s product manufacturers in your country are not substituting cadmium, antimony, and barium in place of lead." [2] The CPSC staff is investigating and politicians are posed to pen legislation that would regulate other toxic metals, besides lead. The real risk is that cadmium is even more toxic than lead and should not be used as a substitute.
Why is Cadmium so harmful?
Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that cadmium “is an extremely toxic metal” and overexposure "may occur even in situations where trace quantities of cadmium are found."[3] Cadmium and cadmium compounds are known to be human carcinogens based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.[4] The NIOSH revised IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health) for cadmium compounds is 9 mg Cd/m3 which was the original IDLH for cadmium fume.[5] “Due to the fact that Cadmium has no constructive purpose in the body”, it is “extremely toxic even in low concentrations” states Bruce A. Fowler, a cadmium specialist and toxicologist with
(Tony Dejak/AP Photo)
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "There's nothing positive that you can say about this metal. It's a poison." [6] On the agency's priority list of 275 most hazardous substances in the environment, cadmium ranks No. 7. [7] Cadmium becomes especially harmful when the item is “mouthed”, sucked, or chewed on. At that point, the metal can end up in the child’s gastrointestinal system resulting in neurological problems, renal disorders, weakening bones leading to sudden fractures, and cancer. Cadmium should only be utilized for approved materials, and children’s toys and products are not one.
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