Cadmium poisoning stymies investigators

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Foul play has all but been ruled out in the deaths of 11 people who were found to have elevated levels of the toxic metal cadmium, but 16 months after the first case was discovered, investigators are no closer a source of contamination.
"It's definitely been a mystery," said Michael Baker, Indiana County chief deputy coroner.
Adding to that mystery is the investigation's beginning -- a suspicion of foul play. But Baker and forensics and health experts say cadmium would be an unlikely poison choice.
"It would take an awful lot for me to see how someone would perpetrate that," Baker said. "This, to me, would not be the element of choice."
Still, preliminary testing on water and soil samples have given authorities no reason to link the levels to land or water contamination.
Of the 11 people found to have elevated levels, only the death of Russell Repine, whose death prompted the investigation, has been ruled cadmium poisoning.
Repine died March 7, 2002, in Homer City in what was first ruled a heart attack. Acting on information provided to authorities, the coroner's office had a toxicology test performed on a blood sample and discovered high levels of cadmium.
His body was exhumed and an autopsy showed he died of cadmium poisoning, though authorities haven't determined whether it was accidental or intentional. Repine was retired, but his workplace and home were ruled out as sources of the heavy metal.
Repine had 352 micrograms of cadmium per liter of blood. That's far higher than the 1.2 micrograms per liter a nonsmoker or 3.9 micrograms per liter a smoker would be expected to have, Baker said.
Regular testing
Investigators began regularly testing for cadmium. When Brunell Dwyer, 72, of Conemaugh Township, died Aug. 4, it was found he had nearly 600 micrograms per liter.
Two other people also had high levels.
Walter Pardee, 46, of Plumville, who died Sept. 14, had 1,005 micrograms, but an autopsy determined that he died of a drug overdose. Violet Shuster, 75, of Buffington Township, who died Sept. 22 of a heart attack, had 348 micrograms.
Baker said he isn't able to say for certain whether cadmium contributed to the deaths of Dwyer, Pardee, Shuster or to those of seven others whose levels were between 10 and 65 micrograms.
Baker isn't releasing those people's names, calling their cadmium levels "incidental." In all, nearly three dozen bodies have been tested for cadmium and all but the 11 have been acceptable, Baker said.
Uses for it
Cadmium has a number of uses: paint pigment, stabilizer for PVC, soldering and welding, metals coating and rechargeable batteries. Chronic exposure can cause kidney damage, bone disease and lung and prostate cancer in humans.
There isn't a standard for a fatal dose of cadmium, Baker said. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets the cutoff of work exposure at 5 micrograms.
Jessilyn Butler Taylor, a scientist and cadmium expert at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a sister agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, called the case "baffling."