Cadmium is the name given to an element that has the properties of a metal and that is present in the earth crust in moderate amounts. It is generally stable in different types of rocks, but erosion may release it in the environment. The process is called mobilization. Other sources of cadmium mobilization are volcanic eruptions, which expel material from the earth’s mantle in the atmosphere, and forest fires, which release materials stored by plants, including metals.

Since its discovery at the beginning of the XIXth century, cadmium has been used in a variety of technological applications. These applications have changed over time, either because more efficient substitutes appeared, or because the technology has been abandoned. Yet, cadmium is still involved in industrial productions, such as heavy duty batteries, solar cells, and nano-materials.

As a result, a lingering dispersion of cadmium in the environment has occurred and is still spreading. Human populations can thus be exposed to cadmium via different routes, inhalation of vapors or ingestion in food and drinking water prominent among them.

The scientists and other professionals participating in the ISRCT are interested in knowledge of cadmium in biological and non-biological fields such as nutrition, botany, veterinary medicine, biochemistry and geology, studying the interaction of all these elements in cadmium, and understanding the way cadmium interacts with living species at all levels of analysis, and how it impacts their behaviors, including in relation to human health.