Accidental human exposure to a high level of tetramethyl lead is described. Tetramethyl lead is blended with petrol as an antiknock agent, and it has similar physical properties to tetraethyl lead. The patient had high levels of lead in urine, averaging 4-75 mumol (983 mug) daily for the first four days after exposure and he continued to have raised levels of urinary lead for six months. He had...

The literature on lead toxicology has been critically reviewed to provide a safety assessment of lead acetate as a hair colouring. The main objectives were: (i) to determine the additional lead contribution from hair-colouring use to the total daily environmental lead intake; and (ii) to assess the toxicological significance of this additional contribution. The review also focuses attention on ...

A retrospective study of the relationship of season to the absorption of radiolead in laboratory rats was performed using data representing 305 animals from 36 experiments over 6 calendar years. Male Wistar rats weighing 200 to 250 g were given 1 microgram of radiolabeled lead in an aqueous solution, pH 4.0, in isolated small intestine, and absorption of the radiolead was quantified after a 4-h...

The biological variation encountered in spot urine samples was assessed by collecting six sets of serial urine specimens from five men. The lead, coproporphyrin, and creatinine contents of each specimen were determined and the specific gravity was measured. It is found that as the mean concentration of the metabolite rises so the variability of the individual values increases. The scatter of th...

For the first time, lead fluoride is used as a fast and compact material in electromagnetic calorimetry. Excellent optical and mechanical properties of the pure Cherenkov crystals are necessary for the A4 collaboration to perform a measurement of the nucleon’s strange form factors. Visible scattering and absorption centers as well as surface damages have been investigated to characterize the qu...

Childhood lead poisoning has been increasingly recognised in the USA where large-scale screening programmes detect some 40 000 cases of undue lead absorption a year. This contrasts with data from the UK where about 100 cases are recognised each year. The situation in other countries is largely unknown, although small surveys have revealed cases from a wide variety of sources. These apparent dis...