This is part of our House MD Project series.

Click here to read the connection to the episode (spoiler alert!)


On episode 12 of season 1, called sports medicine, Hank Wiggen, a baseball star, suddenly breaks his arm due to an unexplained bone loss. Add to that shrunken testicles and a kidney failure. His wife also hasn’t been able to smell anything for six months. Their combined symptoms lead to the diagnosis of cadmium poisoning.

Danger level: High

What is it?

Cadmium is a chemical element (remember your periodic table of chemical elements? its name there is Cd). It has no function in our body and is toxic, even in low amounts.

Who gets it?

Exposure to cadmium can occur in the workplace or outside of it. In the workplace it can be encountered in battery manufacturing plants, in iron and steel production, and in many other occupations.

Outside the workplace, cadmium can be found in the air, water or soil, especially in industrial areas. It may also be found in certain foods, such as kidneys and livers of adult animals and in certain seafoods, such as mussels, oysters and crabs. And lastly, it can be found in small amounts in tobacco (another reason to quit smoking).

In Japan many people have consumed rice that was grown in cadmium contaminated irrigation water, causing a toxicity they called itai-itai disease (simply translated to “ouch ouch sickness”).

Cadmium can be found in air, water or soil. In fact, on the House episode, the source was the soil in which marijuana the couple consumed grew. Photo by john.duffell

This video is from January this year, when cadmium was found in metal toys, which were eventually pulled off the shelves:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvcfTtg1WXY

How does it feel?

One of the symptoms of cadmium exposure is something called osteopenia, or loss of calcium from bones, making them weak and brittle. Osteopenia is a usual phenomenon when we get old. When it happens prematurely, something is wrong…

The osteopenia causes spinal pain and bone pain. The bones get deformed, affecting the way the person walks. Fractures can also happen easily.

Other symptoms include kidney failure, pulmonary problems, loss of the sense of smell, and even cancer.

How is it discovered?

The most useful test for exposure to cadmium (as seen on the House episode) is a urine check, in which cadmium levels will be high. A molecule called β₂-microglobulin will be high in the urine as well. A blood test for cadmium can also discover it.

How is it treated?

There really is no effective treatment. The person exposed to cadmium should stop the exposure before irreversible damage happens to their kidneys.

If the bones are brittle, calcium and vitamin D can be used to try and strengthen them.

There are a number of steps you can take to avoid cadmium poisoning:

1. Quit smoking!
2. Identify potential sources of cadmium around your home, at work, and where your children play.
3. If you have a vegetable garden, use fertilizers tested for cadmium.
4. Properly store and dispose of cadmium-containing products (such as batteries, metals, fungicides, fertilizers, etc.).
5. Keep nickel-cadmium batteries out of the reach of small children and dispose of them properly.

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