Abstract: Cadmium (Cd) is a common and highly toxic heavy metal in the environment. The non-occupational exposure is mainly through smoking and food chain pathways. Continuous low dose Cd exposure usually demonstrates symptomatic body damage after 40 to 50 years old, causing damages to many systems in the human body, which is characterized not only by specific target organ damages mainly in kidney and bone, but also by potential non-specific effects on population chronic disease and death. Most of the health hazardous effects are reflected in the change of population chronic disease spectrum and morbidity, so they are usually difficult to be observed. Therefore, it is necessary pay attention to the potential population health hazards caused by environmental Cd pollution. The study on the population health hazards of environmental cadmium pollution includes intake evaluation, health damage effect assessment of exposed population, and the dose-response relationship between exposure and damage effect, and it combines levels above to evaluate the population health risk. This paper is mainly focused on investigation studies of population exposed in environmental cadmium pollution. It also summarized previous research from perspectives of population Cd exposure, early kidney damage, bone injury, reproductive and growth effects, cardiovascular function effects, and cohort studiesof cancer and death. At last, a brief proposal is presented about the direction of epidemiological research on environmental cadmium pollution in China.