Cadmium intake in women from the University of Aveiro, Portugal — A duplicate diet study

Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential metal widespread in the environment, to which humans are exposed through different routes, being food consumption the most important one. It is considered an endocrine disruptor that is associated with estrogen-dependent diseases with women being particularly susceptible. In order to assess the exposure to this metal through diet intake in premenopausal women, levels of Cd were quantified in 7-days duplicate diet samples provided by 23 women working or studying at University of Aveiro, Portugal. Cd was detected in all analyzed samples with concentrations ranging between 0.007 and 0.21μgg−1 ww (median: 0.009μgg−1 ww). The estimated dietary weekly intakes varied from 1.4 to 48μgkg-bw−1week−1 (median: 2.3μgkg-bw−1week−1), and 35% of the participants exhibited dietary intakes of Cd higher than the tolerable weekly intake (2.5μgkg-bw−1week−1) set for this metal which suggest health risks for these women.