Cadmium concentrations in milk and blood of smoking mothers.

Cadmium concentrations were measured by flameless atomic absorption spectrometry in blood and mature milk of 15 nonsmoking and 56 smoking mothers during the nursing period. Both blood and milk concentrations increased with increasing cigarette consumption. The median blood and milk concentrations in nonsmokers were 0.54 and 0.07 microgram/l, respectively; these values rose to 1.54 and 0.16 micrograms/l in blood and milk of mothers smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day. Milk concentrations of cadmium were approximately 10% of corresponding blood concentrations. The cadmium exposure of infants nursed by nonsmoking as well as by smoking mothers was far below the exposure of formula-fed infants or the provisional acceptable weekly intake level set by the WHO.