The Use of Cadmium in Industrial Segments Leaves a Trail of Contaminations, Edition 1

The objectives of this book are to associate the possible contaminations of cadmium in the various industrial segments involving science, technology, and the environment. The major sources of cadmium can be by-products of the mining, smelting, and refining of zinc sulfide (ZnS) ores and, to a lesser extent, lead sulfide (PbS) and copper sulfide (Cu2S, CuS, CuFeS2) ores. Cadmium minerals (greenockite - CdS) do not occur in sufficient concentrations and quantities to justify it’s their extraction and processing. The element cadmium object of this study was chosen because it is present, directly or indirectly, in several industrial segments and at the same time because it is considered an element extremely toxic, bioaccumulative, and currently occupying the seventh place among the toxic substances with the highest risk of causing harm to humans. In this study, the industrial production of cadmium metal, electrolytic refining, and cadmium metal purity. Nickel-cadmium batteries, the manufacture of cadmium alloys, and pigments, the cadmium electrolytic deposition process, and the various types of effluent treatment processes containing cadmium ions (Cd2+) are discussed. The literature highlights in the 1910s, in Japan, in the rice paddies on the borders of the Jintsu River, the protests of farmers due to cadmium contamination from lead and zinc mining. It is important to highlight the possible diseases contracted by man when associated with the enormous toxicity of cadmium in its various forms. In addition, the laboratory experiments are presented to show how the identification of the element cadmium was conducted in the past, the galvanic series of cadmium, contaminations during welding of silver-cadmium alloys, and the deposition of cadmium in carbon steel. Finally, the conclusions are focused on the critical view of the use of cadmium in several industrial segments and its toxicity.