Rapid industrialization can lead to an excessive release of
heavy metals into the environment [1], which has become a
major concern all over the world [2]. Cadmium (Cd), as one of
the most toxic heavy metals to human health [3] originates as a
contaminant from processes including electroplating, mining,
plastics, paint pigments, alloy preparation, and silver–cadmium
batteries [4–7]. Once its lower threshold is exceeded, cadmium
affects human health and can cause serious disease such as renal
dysfunction, hypertension, lung failure, bone lesions, and cancer
[8,9]. Therefore, cadmium has been included on the red list of
priority pollutants by the Department of the Environment in UK.
It is on list I of Directive 76/464/EEC and listed as a B1
carcinogen by the US EPA [10]. Based on this fact, more and
more attention has been paid to the development of advanced
technologies for reducing cadmium and its compounds in the
human environment.