Blood Pressure, the Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases, and Exposure to Cadmium: A Population Study

Abstract

In a population study conducted from 1985 to 1989 in Belgium, the authors investigated whether exposure to cadmium is associated with blood pressure elevation and with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. The participants, aged 20-88 years, constituted a random sample of the households living in two low exposure areas (n = 803) and two high exposure areas (n = 1,283). For each exposure level, a rural and an urban district were selected. The cadmium levels in blood (8.5 vs. 11.0 nmol/liter) and urine (7.2 vs. 8.7 nmol/24 hours) were significantly (p less than 0.001) raised in the two high exposure areas compared with the two low exposure areas (p less than 0.001). Systolic pressure was similar in both rural areas, but in the urban area with high exposure systolic pressure was 5 mmHg (p less than 0.001) higher than in the control town. Diastolic pressure was similar in the four districts and the same was true for the prevalence of hypertension and of other cardiovascular diseases. Adjustment of systolic pressure for blood and urinary cadmium did not remove the difference in systolic pressure between both urban areas, suggesting that it was not related to the cadmium burden on the environment. Further analyses in individual subjects showed that neither blood pressure nor the presence of cardiovascular diseases were significantly and positively correlated with blood and urinary cadmium. Thus, the present population study did not confirm the hypothesis that increased exposure of the population to cadmium is associated with blood pressure elevation and with a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases.

Blood Cadmium Levels in Nonexposed Male Subjects Living in the Rome Area: Relationship to Selected Cardiovascular Risk Factors

“…High cadmium concentrations have recently been associated with a rise in blood pressure in subjects from Finland (30). However, our data are in agreement with results obtained by other authors (12)(13)(14)(15), even for samples of the general population living in areas with a higher environmental exposure to cadmium (15,31,32). a Regression coefficients obtained after the last step of the multiple regression analysis.…”

“…Animal studies have put into evidence that long-term exposure to cadmium at low levels can induce an increase in blood pressure (6 -8). However, conflicting results have been reported in humans and both negative (9 -11) and positive conclusions (12)(13)(14)(15) have been published.…”

Environmental Exposure to Trace Elements and Prostate Cancer in Three New Zealand Ethnic Groups

“…Cd levels found in blood (0.96Ig/L vs. 1.24Ig/L respectively) were significantly (p<0.001) raised in the two high exposure areas compared with the two low exposure areas (p<0.001) [67]. This indicates that, despite levels in this study not being high enough to be deemed chronic occupational exposure, there may be higher environmental exposure in the Pacific Islands group at 1.15Ig/L (0.98-1.36) ( Table 1).…”

“…A Belgian study tested blood Cd levels from both low and high environmental exposure areas [67]. Cd levels found in blood (0.96Ig/L vs. 1.24Ig/L respectively) were significantly (p<0.001) raised in the two high exposure areas compared with the two low exposure areas (p<0.001) [67].…”

Cadmium exposure and nephropathy in a 28-year-old female metals worker.

“…It has been well documented among the general population that the urinary excretion of cadmium is positively associated with the urinary excretion of calcium (Baecklund et al 1999). In the CadmiBel study, Staessen and colleagues (Staessen et al 1991a(Staessen et al , 1991b(Staessen et al , 1993(Staessen et al , 1999 showed that after adjustment for confounders, doubling of the urinary cadmium excretion was associated with a 0.25-mmol rise per day in urinary calcium excretion. Similarly, in their cohort of Swedish women, Järup et al (1998b) recently documented a 90% increase in urinary calcium excretion among those whose urinary cadmium concentration was > 1 nmol/mmol creatinine (Staessen and Lauwerys 1993).…”