ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the available information, and updates a previous review. It focuses on the relationship between the toxicology of cadmium and critical tissue concentrations to provide an assessment of environmental risk to wild small mammals. Controlled experimental studies involving laboratory rats and mice, in particular, have provided relevant data concerning the effects of cadmium in wild small mammals. Most of the if eld-based investigations of wild populations of small mammals have focused on the cadmium concentrations in tissues, especially in kidney and liver. Martin and Coughtrey, although primarily concerned with the biological monitoring of heavy metal pollution, review many examples of the concentrations of cadmium in both invertebrates and small mammals from many different polluted habitats. The absorption and retention of cadmium is clearly dose and duration dependent in wild small mammals.
