Cadmium cases may not be criminal
A forensic scientist in Canada said Monday that he's familiar with a case of an unusually high level of cadmium in Alberta that is similar to what is being investigated in Indiana County.
Dr. Graham R. Jones, chief of toxicology for the Alberta Medical Examiners Office and immediate past president of the American Academy of Forensic Science, said his office investigated a similar case of the potentially toxic heavy metal years ago.
The office was asked to test the man's body for heavy metals because he had worked in an industrial job. They found extremely high levels of cadmium, which Jones said was unusual even for the man's profession.
"It seemed to be an unusual finding," Jones said.
Though they were puzzled, they selected coroner's cases at random and also tested their bodies. About six out of 10 also had high levels.
Ultimately, the scientists determined it was caused by "postmortem redistribution," a process in which chemicals are released into the bloodstream when organs "leak" after death.
Jones could not recall the specifics of the case, such as the date and the man's name, and did not have the paperwork readily available.
Cadmium is a heavy metal found in nature that also is used in a number of industrial and commercial manufacturing processes. It also is found in batteries and cigarettes, and trace amounts are found in food.
"Everything we eat contains trace amounts of cadmium," Jones said. However, those trace amounts are not enough to be toxic.
Jones said he believes the phenomenon could be more commonplace than portrayed. He said there just aren't enough studies done for the process to be common knowledge among forensic scientists, toxicologists, medical examiners and coroners.
"The information was not there (in Indiana County) that should have been there," Jones said. There haven't been that many studies, Jones said, because grants for postmortem forensic work are very rare.
The Indiana County case originated with Russell Repine, 61, of Brush Valley, who died in March 2002. Repine's family and authorities first believed he died of a heart attack, but then questions were raised by Repine's family and Indiana County Coroner Thomas Streams obtained a court order to exhume his body.
Toxicology tests later revealed Repine had a massive, lethal dose of cadmium, and Streams ruled the death a "criminal act" rather than from environmental or work-related causes.
But a second exhumation yielded no answers after the deceased woman, Anna Nagg, 57, of Saltsburg, was found to have natural levels of cadmium. The Indiana County Coroner's Office began testing every case that came into the office.
Officials found three others with elevated cadmium levels: Walter Pardee, 46, of Plumville, who died Sept. 14, a day after he became ill after burning old furniture, mattresses, plastic toys and carpets; Violet Shuster, 75, of Buffington, who died of a heart attack on Sept. 22; and Burnell Dwyer, 72, of Conemaugh Township, who died Aug. 4 of a bowel condition.
But then Baker and the other experts called in to investigate the case stumbled upon a 1994 Japanese study that asserted the postmortem redistribution phenomenon. Baker said yesterday that Dr. Karl Williams, the laboratories' director at Ellwood City Hospital, would begin a study to determine how common the phenomenon is.
Williams wants to attack the study from two angles. First, he'll test cadmium levels in normal, healthy Indiana County residents and take samples from another random place. He also wants to test cadmium levels of those near death and those after death.
He said he hopes to begin to have results in about two weeks.
Williams also doubts that there is a killer on the loose or that it is caused by an environmental factor, since none of the positive test subjects showed signs that they had been poisoned. Symptoms include a yellowing of the teeth and nausea.
One of the victims also had died after an accident, Williams noted.
"Some of them clearly had nothing to do with cadmium," he said.
The state police, who have been involved in the case from the beginning, are now letting the coroner's office take the lead.
"At this point it appears that it's leading to something that really isn't police-related," said Sgt. Bernard Petrovsky. "That could change in a heartbeat, (but) I don't expect that to happen."
Dr. Joshua Hamilton, director of the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Program at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire, said the redistribution theory sounds probable. He said a protein that "binds up" cadmium in the body, mostly in the kidneys and liver, to keep it from harming people.
The protein also binds up essential metals like zinc and copper, and also can protect the body from harmful metals like silver. The protein would break down after death, releasing those metals into the rest of the body.
Two questions need to be answered, Hamilton said: what the source of the cadmium is and why it hasn't been seen by others in the past.
"Certainly (the redistribution theory is) one possibility," Hamilton said. "The question is why this hasn't been seen elsewhere.
"It may be that people simply haven't looked before."
