| Association between 24-Hour Urinary Cadmium and Pulmonary Function among Community-Exposed Men: The VA Normative Aging Study Brad J. Lampe,1 Sung Kyun Park,1 Thomas Robins,1 Bhramar Mukherjee,2 Augusto A. Litonjua,3 Chitra Amarasiriwardena,3 Marc Weisskopf,3 David Sparrow,4,5 and Howard Hu1 1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; 2Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; 3Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 4VA Normative Aging Study, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 5Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Abstract
Background: High levels of cadmium exposure are known to cause emphysema in occupationally exposed workers, but little has been reported to date on the association between chronic environmental cadmium exposure and pulmonary function. Objective: In this study we examined the association between pulmonary function and cadmium body burden in a subcohort of the Normative Aging Study, a community-based study of aging. Methods: We examined 96 men who had cadmium measured in single 24-hr urinary specimens collected in 1994–1995 and who had one to three tests of pulmonary function between 1994 and 2002 (a total of 222 observations) . We used mixed-effect models to predict pulmonary function based on individual 24-hr urinary cadmium output, adjusted for age, height, time elapsed from the baseline, and smoking status. We assessed effect modification by smoking status. Results: Among all subjects, a single log-unit increase in baseline urinary cadmium was inversely associated with forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) percent predicted [β = –7.56% ; 95% confidence interval (CI) –13.59% to –1.53%] ; forced vital capacity (FVC) percent predicted (β = –2.70% ; 95% CI –7.39% to 1.99%) , and FEV1/FVC ratio (β = –4.13% ; 95% CI –7.61% to –0.66%) . In models including an interaction between urinary cadmium and smoking status, there was a graded, statistically significant reduction in FEV1/FVC ratio across smoking status in association with urinary cadmium. Conclusions: This study suggests that chronic cadmium exposure is associated with reduced pulmonary function, and cigarette smoking modifies this association. These results should be interpreted with caution because the sample size is small, and further studies are needed to confirm our findings. Key words: cadmium, cigarette smoking, forced expiratory volume, forced vital capacity, pulmonary function. Environ Health Perspect 116:1226–1230 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11265 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 14 May 2008]
Address correspondence to S.K. Park, SPH II-M6240, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 S. Observatory St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Telephone: (734) 936-1719. Fax: (734) 763-8095. E-mail: sungkyun@umich.edu We thank N. Lupoli for his assistance with the cadmium measurements. This research was supported primarily by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS R01-ES05257, P42-ES05947, and NIEHS Center grant P30-ES00002) . B.M. was partially supported by the National Cancer Institute (R03-CA130045) . The core data were collected under the auspices of the VA Normative Aging Study with support from the Research Services and the Cooperative Studies Program/ERIC of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC) . The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 14 January 2008 ; accepted 13 May 2008.
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