Exposure to Cadmium of the West-German Population

Abstract

Similar to the situation in other countries the diet and cigarette smoking represent the major sources of cadmium intake of the West-German population. Based on the median cadmium content of different food items and taking into account the average dietary habits of the West-German population the Federal Health Agency calculated the mean cadmium intake of males to be 0.2425 mg/week and that of females to be 0.1882 mg/week (1). The cadmium concentration in the tobacco of German commercial cigarettes has been studied by Szadkowski et al. (2), Müller (3) and Scherer & Barkemeyer (4). According to these studies the cadmium concentration in cigarette tobacco varies between 0.2 and 2.0 ppm or 0.5 — 1.5 μg Cd/cigarette. The average cadmium content in the mainstream smoke of German filter cigarettes is about 0.1 μg Cd/cigarette or less. In plain cigarettes the cadmium content of the mainstream smoke usually exceeds 0.1 (μg/cigarette. 80 — 95% of the mainstream smoke cadmium occur in particulate form. Gas-phase cadmium contributes between 5 and 20% to the total amount of cadmium in the mainstream smoke.