Elsevier

Toxicology Letters

Volume 108, Issues 2–3, 5 September 1999, Pages 321-327
Toxicology Letters

Relationship between urinary cadmium and mortality among inhabitants living in a cadmium polluted area in Japan

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-4274(99)00105-8Get rights and content

Abstract

A 15 year follow-up study of 3119 inhabitants living in a cadmium polluted area was conducted to investigate the influence of environmental cadmium exposure on the mortality. The cumulative survival curves of the subjects with urinary cadmium concentration ≥10 μg/g creatinine was lower than that of the subjects with <10 μg/g creatinine in the men aged 50–59 and 60–69 years and in the women aged 60–69 and 70–79 years. In the men aged 50–69 years and the all aged women, the cumulative survival curves became lower in proportion to the increase of urinary cadmium concentration, when the subjects were divided into four groups according to the amount of urinary cadmium concentration (<5, 5–9.9, 10.1–19.9, ≥20 μg/g creatinine). These results suggested a dose response relationship between cadmium exposure and mortality.

Introduction

Kakehashi River basin is one of the environmental cadmium (Cd) polluted areas in Japan, caused by mining activity of an upstream copper mine closed in 1971. The Health Authorities of Ishikawa Prefecture conducted a health impact survey in 1981–1982 by measuring urinary β2-microglobulin (β2-MG) as an index of renal tubular dysfunction, and urinary Cd as an index of Cd exposure, and found a high prevalence of renal tubular dysfunction induced by Cd (Health Authority of Ishikawa Prefecture, 1984). The subjects targeted in this survey, have been followed up for 9 years. Increased urinary β2-MG was associated with higher mortality rates of inhabitants living in this area (Nakagawa et al., 1993a, Nishijo et al., 1994).

In the present study, a 15-year follow-up of the same subjects was carried out to investigate the relationship between urinary Cd and mortality rates and to clarify the influence of Cd exposure on the mortality of inhabitants living in a Cd-polluted area.

Section snippets

Subjects and methods

For 15 years, 3119 inhabitants (1403 men and 1716 women) living in the Cd-polluted area of the Kakehashi River basin were followed up. Cd pollution had been caused by the mining activity of an upstream copper mine. The same population participated in the health impact survey conducted by the Ishikawa Prefecture in 1981–1982. At the time of the survey, urinary Cd concentration was measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and expressed as a function of creatinine, which was measured by the

Results

The subjects were divided into 4 groups according to yrs (y) of age (50–59, 60–69, 70–79, 80 years) at the time of the health impact survey, and crude mortality rates were compared between Cd positive and negative groups in each age group. The numbers of the subjects, the numbers of deaths and crude mortality rates of urinary Cd positive and negative subjects in four age groups in both sexes were shown in Table 1. Urinary Cd positive rates were increased with age in both sexes, and were higher

Discussion

Urinary Cd has been demonstrated to be a useful indicator of Cd exposure of inhabitants living in Cd polluted areas (Ishizaki et al., 1965, Fukushima et al., 1973). The relationship between urinary Cd and renal tubular dysfunction, an early adverse health effect induced by Cd was observed in all Cd polluted areas in Japan (Shitomi et al., 1981, Aoshima, 1987, Ishizaki et al., 1989, Kawada et al., 1992), Belgium (Buchet et al., 1990) and China (Cai et al., in press).

In the Kakehashi River basin,

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