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Electroplating
Cadmium electroplating, consuming 6% of the global production, is used in the aircraft industry to reduce corrosion of steel components. This coating is passivated by chromate salts. A limitation of cadmium plating is hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength steels from the electroplating process. Therefore, steel parts heat-treated to tensile strength above 1300 MPa (200 ksi) should be coated by an alternative method (such as special low-embrittlement cadmium electroplating processes or physical vapor deposition).

Titanium embrittlement from cadmium-plated tool residues resulted in banishment of those tools (and the implementation of routine tool testing to detect cadmium contamination) in the A-12/SR-71, U-2, and subsequent aircraft programs that use titanium.

Nuclear fission
Cadmium is used in the control rods of nuclear reactors, acting as a very effective "neutron poison" to control neutron flux in nuclear fission. When cadmium rods are inserted in the core of a nuclear reactor, cadmium absorbs neutrons preventing them from creating additional fission events, thus controlling the amount of reactivity. The pressurized water reactor designed by Westinghouse Electric Company uses an alloy consisting of 80% silver, 15% indium, and 5% cadmium.

Cadmium oxide was used in black and white television phosphors and in the blue and green phosphors of color television cathode ray tubes. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) is used as a photoconductive surface coating for photocopier drums. Various cadmium salts are used in paint pigments, with CdS as a yellow pigment being the most common. Cadmium selenide is a red pigment, commonly called cadmium red. To painters who work with the pigment, cadmium provides the most brilliant and durable yellows, oranges, and reds — so much so that during production, these colors are significantly toned down before they are ground with oils and binders or blended into watercolors, gouaches, acrylics, and other paint and pigment formulations. Because these pigments are potentially toxic, users should use a barrier cream on the hands to prevent absorption through the skin even though the amount of cadmium absorbed into the body through the skin is reported to be less than 1%.

In PVC, cadmium was used as heat, light, and weathering stabilizers. Currently, cadmium stabilizers have been completely replaced with barium-zinc, calcium-zinc and organo-tin stabilizers. Cadmium is used in many kinds of solder and bearing alloys, because it has a low coefficient of friction and fatigue resistance. It is also found in some of the lowest-melting alloys, such as Wood's metal.

Laboratory uses
Helium–cadmium lasers are a common source of blue-ultraviolet laser light. They operate at either 325 or 422 nm in fluorescence microscopes and various laboratory experiments. Cadmium selenide quantum dots emit bright luminescence under UV excitation (He-Cd laser, for example). The color of this luminescence can be green, yellow or red depending on the particle size. Colloidal solutions of those particles are used for imaging of biological tissues and solutions with a fluorescence microscope.

Cadmium is a component of some compound semiconductors, such as cadmium sulfide, cadmium selenide, and cadmium telluride, used for light detection and solar cells. HgCdTe is sensitive to infrared light and can be used as an infrared detector, motion detector, or switch in remote control devices.

In molecular biology, cadmium is used to block voltage-dependent calcium channels from fluxing calcium ions, as well as in hypoxia research to stimulate proteasome-dependent degradation of Hif-1α.

Cadmium-selective sensors
Cadmium-selective sensors based on the fluorophore BODIPY have been developed for imaging and sensing of cadmium in cells. One of the most popular way to monitor cadmium in aqueous environments is the use of electrochemistry, one example is by attaching a self-assembled monolayer that can help obtain a cadmium selective electrode with a ppt-level sensitivity.

Biological research
Cadmium has no known function in higher organisms, but a cadmium-dependent carbonic anhydrase has been found in some marine diatoms. The diatoms live in environments with very low zinc concentrations and cadmium performs the function normally carried out by zinc in other anhydrases. This was discovered with X-ray absorption fluorescence spectroscopy (XAFS).

The highest concentration of cadmium is absorbed in the kidneys of humans, and up to about 30 mg of cadmium is commonly inhaled throughout human childhood and adolescence. Cadmium is under preliminary research for its toxicity in humans, potentially affecting mechanisms and risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.

Environmental hazards
The biogeochemistry of cadmium and its release to the environment has been the subject of review, as has the speciation of cadmium in the environment.

Safety measures
Individuals and organizations have been reviewing cadmium's bioinorganic aspects for its toxicity. The most dangerous form of occupational exposure to cadmium is inhalation of fine dust and fumes, or ingestion of highly soluble cadmium compounds. Inhalation of cadmium fumes can result initially in metal fume fever but may progress to chemical pneumonitis, pulmonary edema, and death.

Cadmium is also an environmental hazard. Human exposure is primarily from fossil fuel combustion, phosphate fertilizers, natural sources, iron and steel production, cement production and related activities, nonferrous metals production, and municipal solid waste incineration. Bread, root crops, and vegetables also contribute to the cadmium in modern populations.

There have been a few instances of general population poisoning as the result of long-term exposure to cadmium in contaminated food and water, and research into an estrogen mimicry that may induce breast cancer is ongoing. In the decades leading up to World War II, mining operations contaminated the Jinzū River in Japan with cadmium and traces of other toxic metals. As a consequence, cadmium accumulated in the rice crops along the riverbanks downstream of the mines. Some members of the local agricultural communities consumed the contaminated rice and developed itai-itai disease and renal abnormalities, including proteinuria and glucosuria.

The victims of this poisoning were almost exclusively post-menopausal women with low iron and other mineral body stores. Similar general population cadmium exposures in other parts of the world have not resulted in the same health problems because the populations maintained sufficient iron and other mineral levels. Thus, although cadmium is a major factor in the itai-itai disease in Japan, most researchers have concluded that it was one of several factors. Cadmium is one of six substances banned by the European Union's Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, which regulates hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment but allows for certain exemptions and exclusions from the scope of the law. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified cadmium and cadmium compounds as carcinogenic to humans. Although occupational exposure to cadmium is linked to lung and prostate cancer, there is still a substantial controversy about the carcinogenicity of cadmium in low environmental exposure. Recent data from epidemiological studies suggest that intake of cadmium through diet associates to higher risk of endometrial, breast and prostate cancer as well as to osteoporosis in humans. A recent study has demonstrated that endometrial tissue is characterized by higher levels of cadmium in current and former smoking females.

Cadmium exposure is a risk factor associated with a large number of illnesses including kidney disease, early atherosclerosis, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. Although studies show a significant correlation between cadmium exposure and occurrence of disease in human populations, a necessary molecular mechanism has not been identified. One hypothesis holds that cadmium is an endocrine disruptor and some experimental studies have shown that it can interact with different hormonal signaling pathways. For example, cadmium can bind to the estrogen receptor alpha, and affect signal transduction along the estrogen and MAPK signaling pathways at low doses.

The tobacco plant readily absorbs and accumulates heavy metals, such as cadmium from the surrounding soil into its leaves. These are readily absorbed into the user's body following smoke inhalation. Tobacco smoking is the most important single source of cadmium exposure in the general population. An estimated 10% of the cadmium content of a cigarette is inhaled through smoking. Absorption of cadmium through the lungs is more effective than through the gut, and as much as 50% of the cadmium inhaled in cigarette smoke may be absorbed. On average, cadmium concentrations in the blood of smokers is 4 times 5 times greater and in the kidney, 2–3 times greater than non-smokers. Despite the high cadmium content in cigarette smoke, there seems to be little exposure to cadmium from passive smoking.

In a non-smoking population, food is the greatest source of exposure. High quantities of cadmium can be found in crustaceans, mollusks, offal, and algae products. However, grains, vegetables, and starchy roots and tubers are consumed in much greater quantity in the US, and are the source of the greatest dietary exposure. Most plants bio-accumulate metal toxins like Cd, and when composted to form organic fertilizers yield a product which can often contain high amounts (e.g., over 0.5 mg) of metal toxins for every kilo of fertilizer. Fertilizers made from animal dung (e.g., cow dung) or urban waste can contain similar amounts of Cd. The Cd added to the soil from fertilizers (rock phosphates or organic fertilizers) become bio-available and toxic only if the soil pH is low (i.e., acidic soils). Zinc is chemically similar to cadmium and some evidence indicates the presence of Zn ions reduces cadmium toxicity.