Cadmium
Heavy metalIARC Group 1A heavy metal in batteries, pigments, plating, welding fumes, and burn-pit smoke.
Where it comes from in service
Battery and electronics work, welding and brazing, corrosion-resistant coatings, and inhaled burn-pit particulate.
How it harms the body
Cadmium concentrates in the kidneys, where it damages the filtering tubules and causes the body to spill protein and minerals into the urine.
It competes with zinc — a mineral hundreds of enzymes depend on — and drives oxidative stress in the lungs and bone.
How long it stays in you
Extremely long biological half-life (often 10–30 years) in the kidney and liver; it accumulates across a career.
ATSDR links cadmium to chronic kidney disease and bone weakening; inhaled cadmium is associated with lung cancer.
Ongoing kidney injury can progress silently for years before it shows on standard labs, and bone loss and lung effects can follow. Early kidney-function monitoring matters.
What to ask your clinician about
- •Urine cadmium testing
- •Kidney function markers your clinician chooses (eGFR, creatinine, and others as indicated)
Bring this to your clinician and your VSO — they decide what testing and care, if any, is right for you. For general, whole-person ways to support your body, see Whole health.
Sources: ATSDR ToxFAQs: Cadmium · IARC Group 1 · VA / ATSDR. Drafted from the government's and science's own record — VA presumptive lists (PACT Act, 38 CFR, Camp Lejeune), ATSDR ToxFAQs, IARC, and NTP. Sources are cited on every page, and this library has not yet been reviewed by a named clinician or toxicologist. This is documentation to bring to your clinician and VSO — not a diagnosis, a treatment plan, or a determination of service connection. Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1.