Cadmium, A Widespread Contaminant, Linked to Learning Disabilities. Is It The New Lead?

from scientificamerican.com

It’s a heavy metal. It’s linked to learning problems in school children. And every child is exposed.

Sounds like lead? 

It’s cadmium.

Signs are emerging that cadmium – a widespread contaminant that gets little attention from health experts and regulators – could be the new lead.

Children with higher cadmium levels are three times more likely to have learning disabilities and participate in special education, according to a new study led by Harvard University researchers.

Absorbed from the soil, cadmium is found in certain foods, particularly potatoes, grains, sunflower seeds and leafy greens, as well as tobacco. It also has been discovered in some inexpensive children’s jewelry, prompting new voluntary industry standards last fall.

Dr. Robert Wright, the study’s senior author, emphasized that the links to learning disabilities and special education were found at commonplace levels previously thought to be benign.

“One of the important points of the study is that we didn’t study a population of kids who had very high exposures. We studied a population representative of the U.S. That we found any [effect] suggests this is occurring at relatively low levels,” said Wright, an associate professor of pediatrics and environmental health at Harvard.

Read more.