Heavy metals are naturally occurring elements that are widely distributed in the earth’s crust. Excessive levels of trace elements may occur naturally as a result of geological phenomenon such as ore formation, weathering of rocks and leaching. Human activities, for instance, burning of fossil fuel, mining, smelting, discharging industrial, agricultural and domestic waste are far more responsible for the presence of heavy metals in the atmosphere than the natural geological phenomenon. Cadmium as an industrial pollutant has aroused a great concern due to its toxic effects on the various body tissues. Therefore, an attempt has been made to study the changes in the values of hemoglobin of Swiss albino mice after cadmium chloride exposure. For the experiment, adult healthy male Swiss albino mice (6-8 weeks old) were used for the experiment. The aqueous solution of the cadmium chloride was prepared by dissolving 20 mg of cadmium chloride in 1000 ml of the glass distilled water, thus giving the concentration of 20 ppm and then administered orally in drinking water. Animals were autopsied by cervical dislocation at each post-treatment interval of 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14 and 28 days. Immediately after autopsy, the blood was collected by cardiac puncture in heparinized tubes for studying haemoglobin percentage. The present investigation revealed decrease in haemoglobin values continuously upto day-4 after cadmium exposure and increasing thereafter. Cadmium interferes with the formation of haemoglobin, almost certainly in the bone marrow and intoxication by cadmium can hinder the resorption of iron resulting in an iron deficiency anaemia.

Keywords: Cadmium Chloride, Haemolgobin, Haemolymph.