Legislation and Government Programs

There is pressure to reduce or even eliminate the use of cadmium. The element is included in a draft list of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants prepared by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1999. In many countries the cadmium contents of air, water, food additives, paints and pesticides are regulated. 

Spent NiCd batteries are, when incinerated or disposed of in landfills, a source of heavy cadmium emissions. An EU Directive, 2000/60/EC, recommended that the use of 32 chemicals should be phased out within 20 years. According to the recommendation, NiCd batteries should be banned from 2008. The recommendation of 2000 was, however, moderated in 2001. Instead of banning NiCd batteries, new take-back systems and deposit schemes should be developed in order to reduce the risk to human health and the environment. 

1 Jozef Plachy, Cadmium chapter in US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2002, pp. 40-41, and Cadmium chapter in US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook 2001, Vol. I, Metals and Minerals, pp. 17.1-17.7, http //min-erals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodi-ty/cadmium 

Die chemischen Elemente. S. Herzel Verlag, Stuttgart, 1996 Ulf lindh (ecL) Metaller, Hdlsa, Miljo. In Swedish. (Metals, Health and Environment). A Conference in Uppsala 1992. Text updated in 1996. Metallbiologiskt Centrum i Uppsala 

Ground state electron configuration Crystal structure  

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