The paper systematizes information on anthropogenic environmental pollution by cadmium, pathways of Cd distribution, toxicity, and strategies to reduce Cd content in soil and crop products. The relevance stems from the need to develop strategies to prevent long-term exposure to cadmium in the human body, which has significant consequences for public health and environmental safety. The paper analyzes in detail the sources and migration pathways of cadmium in the environment. It is shown that cadmium is one of the main air and soil pollutants in industrial regions. Its presence in the environment is aggravated by natural phenomena. Cadmium compounds are capable of traveling long distances with air currents, resulting in deposition in areas remote from pollution sources. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of cadmium accumulation in the soil and its subsequent transfer to plants, which leads to its penetration into the food chain. Cd is non-essential element for plants. Cadmium has carcinogenic properties. Once in the human body, it blocks enzyme functions and can provoke serious diseases. Due to the high danger, cadmium content is normalized in soil (from 0.5 to 2.0 mg/kg), fertilizers (3 and 20 mg/kg P2O5), food (0.02–1.0 mg/kg), food grains (0.1 mg/kg), animal feed (0.3–0.4 mg/kg). Phytoremediation is an effective way to reduce the ingress of cadmium into the food chain. Lantana camara L., Brassica juncea (L.) Czern., Brassica napus L., Nicotiana tabacum L., castor oil are used as cadmium hyperaccumulators. Soil acidification, inoculation with endophytic bacterial strains, chelating organic additives, and transformation of hyperaccumulator plants with phytochelatin genes encoding the synthesis of metal-binding peptides have been used to enhance phytoremediation efficiency. Agronomic methods that regulate the absorption of toxic metal by agricultural crops can significantly reduce the effects of cadmium in the human body. Increasing the resistance of plants to cadmium stress and reducing the accumulation of toxic metal in them are among them.
Keywords: cadmium, migration, maximum permissible concentration, soil, grain, remediation
Article published in number 4 for 2024 DOI: 10.25750/1995-4301-2024-4-015-025
ISSN 1995-4301
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