I am interested in environmental cadmium, a universal pollutant, as a risk factor for several major chronic diseases. Thus far, these studies have indicated environmental cadmium may be a significant risk factor for osteoporosis and for breast cancer in US women as has been reported particularly in the European literature .The results of our initial study on osteoporosis were cited by the European Food Safety Authority as contributing to its decision to lower the guidelines for allowable ingestion of cadmium in foods by 50 percent. I am presently interested in a developing large database for studying possible relationships of between blood maternal cadmium concentrations and pregnancy outcomes and also patterns of epigenetic markers in the DNA of their offspring that may be related to risk of chronic illnesses in later life.
