A TRACE METAL accumulating in a metabolic organ with age may be suspected of influencing the development of an age-linked disorder. Cadmium accumulates in the human kidney with age,1, 2but there are wide geographical variations in concentration.3Small doses of cadmium given in water have been reported to produce hypertension in young female rats;4about 70% of both sexes exhibited hypertension by the 30th month of age, at renal concentrations less than those of man.5Patients with hypertension excreted many times more urinary cadmium than did normotensive subjects.6Therefore, human renal cadmium was evaluated in respect to the presence or absence of hypertension. Data on trace metals in human tissues from ten cities in the United States and from nine foreign countries were obtained from a study of over 400 necropsies.7-9Cases were classified as to cause of death into the major categories shown in the Table.