Fish sauce contains large amounts of NaCl and amino acids (Michihata et al., 2000; Park et al., 2001), and although chelate resins are effective in diluted solutions such as waste water, these fish sauce constituents may inhibit Cd removal. Thus, we initially investigated the influence of NaCl on the Cd removal abilities of chelate resins in aqueous reference samples. These samples were prepared using NaCl in aqueous phosphorous buffer, and the concentrations of NaCl ranged from 0 to that of fish sauce.