Skip to content
Blood Test Tracker

Cadmium, Urine

Measures cadmium, a toxic metal, in a urine sample. It mostly reflects how much has built up in the body over years.

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert reviewAlso called CdU, Cd-ULOINC 5611-9

Check your result

Sex (optional)

Type your result to see where it falls.

Nothing you type here leaves your browser.

What it is

Cadmium is a metal found in tobacco smoke, in some foods and in some workplaces. Your body absorbs a little and holds on to it for decades, mostly in the kidneys, while a small amount leaves in the urine each day. This test measures the cadmium in one urine sample, in micrograms per liter. How watery your urine is changes that number, so many labs also report cadmium per gram of creatinine, which evens out the difference.

Why it matters

Long-term exposure to cadmium can strain the kidneys, and it is linked to weaker bones. Urine cadmium is the usual way to check how much has built up over time. Blood cadmium shows more recent exposure. Most people have low levels, and the common sources, such as smoking and some jobs, can often be reduced.

If it’s high

A result above your lab's limit means more cadmium has built up in your body than is typical. It does not by itself show kidney damage. Most often the cause is smoking, food, a job that involves cadmium, or very concentrated urine. Your clinician can look at the number together with your kidney tests and your exposure history.

Common causes

  • Concentrated (dark) urine, which raises a per-liter result
  • Smoking tobacco (and, in survey data, smoking marijuana)
  • Everyday foods that naturally contain cadmium, such as grains, potatoes, leafy greens, shellfish and organ meats like liver and kidney
  • Low iron stores, which let the gut absorb more cadmium
  • Work with nickel-cadmium batteries, pigments, metal plating or smelting
  • Kidney damage from long-term exposure, which lets more cadmium leak into the urine
  • A sample collected in a container that was not trace-element-free
  • A "provoked" test collected after a chelating medicine, which pushes metals out and has no valid normal range

What can help

  • If you smoke, ask your clinician about support to quit
  • If you work with cadmium, ask your employer or occupational health team about protective equipment and monitoring
  • Ask about a creatinine-corrected result and a kidney check, such as eGFR and urine protein, to put the number in context
  • Be wary of "provoked" or "challenge" urine tests; toxicology experts advise against them

Usual ranges

What labs print as the reference range, by who was tested. Ranges differ a little between labs, so the range on your own report is the one your result is judged against.

For adults: up to 1 µg/L. Source: ARUP Laboratories, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry).

What can affect your result

  • How watery your urine is: hydration changes a per-liter result
  • Smoking, diet, work and where you live
  • Age: cadmium builds up in the kidneys over a lifetime
  • Iron stores: low iron lets the gut absorb more cadmium, which may be one reason women often have higher urine cadmium than men
  • Kidney function and kidney damage
  • Recent gadolinium or iodine contrast dye
  • Collection container and contamination
  • Very dilute or very concentrated urine changes a per-liter result. The creatinine-corrected version corrects for this.
  • Contrast dye can interfere with this kind of metal test. ARUP rejects urine collected within 48 hours after gadolinium contrast and advises avoiding iodine-containing medicines or contrast agents for at least 1 month before urine metal testing.
  • Use the trace-element-free plastic container your lab provides. A container that is not trace-element-free can add cadmium. ARUP suggests repeating an unexpectedly high result in a certified container.
  • Urine collected after taking a chelating medicine (a "provoked" test) cannot be compared with a normal range.
  • Kidney damage from long-term exposure can make urine cadmium rise, so the number then no longer matches the amount stored.

A random (single) urine sample, or part of a 24-hour collection. ARUP does not ask for a particular time of day. Changes slowly. Urine cadmium mostly reflects exposure built up over years, so it will not fall quickly after exposure stops (the whole-body half-time is about 20 to 30 years).

When to talk to a clinician

Talk with your clinician if your result is above your lab's limit (ARUP prints 1.0 µg/L), and sooner if you work with cadmium. Get medical care right away if you breathed in fumes or dust from heated or welded cadmium-containing metal and now have cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath or fever. If you may have swallowed a large amount, call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the US). Lab limits for this test are not emergency thresholds.

Questions you could ask

  • If my exposure continues, how often should this be rechecked?
  • Could smoking, my diet or my job explain this result?
  • Would a creatinine-corrected result or a repeat sample help?
  • Should we check my kidneys, for example eGFR and urine protein?

Questions people ask

Should I use the per-liter result or the per-gram-of-creatinine result?

The per-gram-of-creatinine result is usually easier to compare, because it corrects for how watery your urine is. If your report shows both, look at both. They are separate markers in this catalog.

Why do my blood and urine cadmium results not match?

They answer different questions. Blood mostly shows recent exposure. Urine shows what has built up over years. A person who recently quit smoking, for example, can have a lower blood level but a still-higher urine level.

What is a "provoked" urine test, and should I get one?

It means urine collected after taking a medicine that pulls metals out of the body. Toxicology experts advise against it, because there is no validated way to read the result and it can make anyone's numbers look high.

Show the science and sources

Units

  • 1 µg/L = 1 µg/L
  • 1 µg/L = 1 ng/mL
  • 1 µg/L = 8.896 nmol/L

Open the Cadmium (Urine) unit converter

For clinicians and researchers

Urine cadmium is measured by ICP-MS (ARUP) or ICP-MS/MS (Mayo). Urine cadmium primarily reflects total body burden, correlates better with kidney cadmium than blood does, and responds somewhat to recent exposure. In an autopsy study, a urinary cadmium of 1.7 µg/g creatinine corresponded to a renal cortex level of about 50 µg/g. When exposure is high enough to injure the tubules, urinary cadmium rises because stored cadmium is released and reabsorption falls, so the number then overstates intake. ATSDR's draft profile reports an adult US geometric mean of about 0.19 µg/g creatinine (CDC 2024) and values up to about 50 µg/g creatinine in highly exposed populations. Early kidney effects are described at about 2 µg/g creatinine (biochemical changes), about 4 µg/g (higher-molecular-weight proteins and enzymes) and about 10 µg/g (low-molecular-weight proteins). A meta-analysis found a benchmark dose lower limit of about 2.0 µg/g creatinine for the tubular marker NAG. Associations with lower GFR have been seen in groups with mean urine cadmium of 4 to 6 µg/g creatinine but mostly not at 1 µg/g or less. Complementary markers are urine beta-2-microglobulin, retinol-binding protein, alpha-1-microglobulin and NAG; beta-2-microglobulin breaks down quickly in urine at pH below 5.5. Provoked (post-chelator) urine metal testing is not validated and is advised against. ARUP lists 1.0 µg/L as its limit and calls urine cadmium useful for chronic exposure and body burden. IARC classifies cadmium as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).

LOINC 5611-9 (primary), 30925-2, 25360-9. Specimen: urine.

Sources

  1. Cadmium, Urine (ARUP test code 0025040), ARUP Laboratories
  2. Cadmium Exposure Panel - OSHA (ARUP test code 0025013), ARUP Laboratories
  3. Toxicological Profile for Cadmium (Draft for Public Comment), Chapter 3: Toxicokinetics, Susceptible Populations, Biomarkers, Chemical Interactions, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) (2025)
  4. Toxicological Profile for Cadmium (Draft for Public Comment), Chapter 2: Health Effects, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) (2025)
  5. Recommendations for provoked challenge urine testing, Journal of Medical Toxicology (2013)
  6. Cadmium (PubChem compound 23973), PubChem, National Library of Medicine
  7. Toxicological Profile for Cadmium (Draft for Public Comment), Chapter 5: Potential for Human Exposure, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) (2025)

AI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert review. Last reviewed 2026-10-03. How we build and check these pages.

Related markers