Cadmium

Long term exposure to high levels of Cadmium in drinking water can cause kidney, liver, bone, and blood damage. Safe Home offers several kits that provide drinking water testing for cadmium for water-based liquid.

Parameter Type: Drinking Water Testing for Volatiles

Parameter Name: Cadmium

What it is and Where it Comes From:

Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. The greatest use of cadmium is primarily for metal plating and coating operations, including transportation equipment, machinery and baking enamels, photography, television phosphors. It is also used in nickel-cadmium and solar batteries and in pigments. Drinking water testing gives you several benefits like peace of mind, identifying contaminants in your water, and insight into health concerns. Safe Home offers Laboratory drinking water testing kits for cadmium, allowing you to collect your water sample and ship it directly to our EPA-Certified Laboratory. This platform of drinking water testing for cadmium will give you an accurate level based on the lowest level of a parameter our instruments can detect (Method Detection Level). Safe Home drinking water testing for metals can be used for city and well water supplies. Drinking water testing should be done any time you notice a significant change in your water quality.

Health Effects:

Cadmium can cause the following health issues for a short periods of time nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle cramps, salivation, sensory disturbances, liver injury, convulsions, shock, and renal failure. Long-term exposure at high levels can cause kidney, liver, bone, and blood damage. Drinking water testing is a great way to monitor contaminates in your water system.

Solutions to Contaminant Levels:

Cadmium can also be removed by coagulation, precipitation, and filtration treatment when pH is raised. It can also be removed as a part of a lime softening process. Reverse osmosis systems can effectively reduce all ionic species of cadmium by 92-98 percent of the influent concentration for influent water concentrations up to at least ten times greater than the MCL when operated at pressures greater than 50 psi and at temperatures between 40° and 85° F. There are several types of membrane materials in use. Acceptable operating conditions for each type are different. Care must be taken to ensure that operating conditions for the specific membrane material are adhered to, especially feed water pH, particulates, and oxidants, to maintain effectiveness. Periodic testing for percent rejection should be performed. Another effective means of reducing cadmium is distillation. Precipitated and insoluble species of cadmium that may exist in some waters can be reduced with filtration that effectively removes particles of 0.5 microns in size. Water sampling and analysis, using recognized analytical procedures to verify performance, are recommended to assure that the MCL of 0.005 mg/L can be met by the water treatment system at all operating conditions. The treatment methods listed herein are generally recognized as techniques that can effectively reduce the listed contaminants sufficiently to meet or exceed the relevant MCL. However, this list does not reflect the fact that point-of-use/point-of-entry (POU/POE) devices and systems currently on the market may differ widely in their effectiveness in treating specific contaminants, and performance may vary from application to application. Therefore, selection of a particular device or system for health contaminant reduction should be made only after careful investigation of its performance capabilities based on results from competent equipment validation testing for the specific contaminant to be reduced. As part of point-of-entry treatment system installation procedures, system performance characteristics should be verified by tests conducted under established test procedures and water analysis. Thereafter, the resulting water should be monitored periodically to verify continued performance. The application of the water treatment equipment must be controlled diligently to ensure that acceptable feed water conditions and equipment capacity are not exceeded. Who do I need to contact to find out more information about water quality in my area? Every community water supplier must provide an annual report to its customers, known as a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). The report provides information on your local drinking water quality, including the water’s source, contaminants found in the water, and how consumers can get involved in protecting drinking water. How often does the local public water system preform drinking water testing? Frequency of drinking water testing depends on the number of people served, the type of water source, and types of contaminants. Certain contaminants are tested more frequently than others, as established by the Safe Drinking Water Act. You can find out about levels of regulated contaminants in your treated water for the previous calendar year in your annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).

File Under: Metals

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