Lead pollution

Air. Studies have shown that 2500 years ago lead pollution caused by Greek and Roman silver smelters was a significant problem (4). Based on analysis of lake sediments and Greenland s ice, it was found that lead contamination from smelters in southern and central Europe was carried throughout the northern hemisphere. As long ago as the thirteenth century, air pollution has been linked to the burning of coal (4). The main concern was the smell from the sulfur in the coal and the effects of the soot. It was not until many years later that the effects of air pollution on people s health were discovered. 

Figure 4 shows an isomap of the lead pollution in the first smelter area of the Dallas Lead Study. The round symbol in the center represents the smelter. The lines are isopleths of lead in soil in pg/g. Note the cluster of closed isopleths encircling the smelter. The large number of concentric isopleths encircling the smelter shows a steep gradient or rapid change in a short distance between a low (200 ig/g) outside and a high (3,000 pg/g) inside. 

Patterson felt he had no choice. He would have to focus on lead in the environment. He would have to demonstrate that the preindustrial world had been virtually free of lead pollution. He would have to challenge the giants of American industry carmakers, petroleum companies, lead producers, and chemical corporations. 

Over the next 30 years, Patterson used mass spectroscopy and clean laboratory techniques to demonstrate the pervasiveness of lead pollution. He traced the relationships between America s gas pump and its tuna sandwiches, between Roman slaves and silver dimes, and between Native American Indians and polar snows. He forged as close a connection between science and public policy as any physical scientist outside of medical research. He made the study of global pollution a quantitative science. And marrying his stubborn determination to his passionate conviction that science ought to serve society, Patterson never budged an inch. 

In the midst of Patterson s ice core and Greco-Roman studies in 1965, Dr. Katharine R. Boucot asked him to submit an article about lead pollution to Archives of Environmental Health. Boucot was chief editor of the journal, considered the bible of industrial toxicology. 

Thinking back on humanity s 2000 years of lead pollution, Patterson often asked himself, What led us to poison the Earth s biosphere with lead He suggested that the brains of those involved in materialistic and utilitarian engineering might be different from those involved in aesthetic and scientific endeavors. Patterson s brain theory embarrassed many of his colleagues who regarded it as off the wall stuff. ... 

Dorothy M. Settle and Clair C. Patterson. Lead in Albacore Guide to Lead Pollution in Americans. Science. 207 (Mar. 14, 1980) 1167-1176. 

Harrison, H.M., Lead Pollution Causes and Control. Chapman Hall, New York, 1984. 

Ahmed M, Ahmad P, Kutbi 1. 1989. Lead pollution in urban and rural Saudi Arabian children. Bull Environ Contain Toxicol 43 660-666. 

Singh B, Dhawan D, Nehru B, et al. 1994. Impact of lead pollution on the status of other trace metals in blood and alterations in hepatic functions. Biol Trace Elem Res 40 21-29. 

Todd DA, Adams JAS Sr. 1987. Shifting sources of lead pollution. In Hemphill DD, ed., Trace Substances in Environmental Health 21st Annual Cont ence, St. Louis, Missouri, 104-112. 

Hong S., Candelone J.P., Patterson C.C., Boutron C.F. Greenland ice evidence of hemispheric lead pollution two millennia ago by Greek and Roman civilization. Science 1994 265 1841-1843. 

Settle D.M., Patterson C.C. Lead in Albacore Guide to lead pollution in Americans. Science 1980 207 1167-1176. 

Modified from Harrison, R.M. and D.P.H. Laxen. 1981. Lead Pollution. Causes and Control. Chapman and Hall, NY. 168 pp. Demayo, A., M.C. Taylor, K.W. Taylor, and P.V. Hodson. 1982. Toxic effects of lead and lead compounds on human health, aquatic life, wildlife plants, and livestock. CRCCrit. Rev. Environ. Control 12 257-305. 

Bull, K.R., W.J. Avery, P. Freestone, J.R. Hall, D. Osborn, A.S. Cooke, and T. Stowe. 1983. Alkyl lead pollution and bird mortalities on the Mersey estuary, UK, 1979-1981. Environ. Pollut. 31A 239-259. 

Dodge, R.E. and T.R. Gilbert. 1984. Chronology of lead pollution contained in banded coral skeletons. Mar. Biol. 82 9-13. 

Fantin, A.M.B., A. Franchini, E. Ottaviani, and L. Benedetti. 1985. Effect of pollution on some freshwater species. II. Bioaccumulation and toxic effects of experimental lead pollution on the ganglia in Viviparus ater (Mollusca, Gastropoda). Basic Appl. Histochem. 29 377-387. 

Harrison, R.M. and D.PH. Laxen. 1981. Lead Pollution. Causes and Control. Chapman and Hall, NY. 168 pp. 

Krishnayya, N.S.R. and S.J. Bedi. 1986. Effect of automobile lead pollution in Cassia tora L. and Cassia occidentalis L. Environ. Pollut. 40A 2 1-226. 

Ohi, G., H. Seki, K. Akiyama, and H. Yagyu. 1974. The pigeon, a sensor of lead pollution. Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 12 92-98. 

Taylor, D.H., C.W. Steel, and S. Strickler-Shaw. 1990. Responses of green frog (Rana clamitans) tadpoles to lead-polluted water. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 9 87-93. 

Lead pollution level is predictive of a number of diseases in the affected population. 

Lu Yuanfa.Yang Hongwei, Zhou Guohua, Ma Liyan, Mei Yuping and Chen Xiqing.2005. Lead isotopes in soil as a tracer of environmental lead pollution in Hangzhou. Quaternary Science, 25(3), 355-362. (in Chinese). 

The assessment of lead contamination in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan is based on the global lead emission inventory for 1990 (Pacyna et al., 1995), the only available dataset at the moment. Despite the fact that lead emissions have considerably changed worldwide in the last fourteen years, the outcomes of the assessment can illustrate the general character of the long-range trans-boundary lead pollution in the countries under consideration. 

Settle, D., and C. C. Patterson (1980), "Lead in Albacore Quide to Lead Pollution in Americans", Science 207, 1167-1176. 

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