Lead Exposure among Children — A Reassessment

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Abstract
Lead, a useful but toxic metal, occurs naturally in the ecosystem. It has been mined and processed for many centuries, but its dispersion in the human environment rose sharply only after industrialization. Studies of the lead concentrations of chronologic snow layers in quiescent Greenland ice sheets have revealed a dramatic increase in the layer corresponding to 1750, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and a steep upward trend after 1940. In 1965, the lead concentration in Greenland snow was 400 times the natural level present in 800 B.C.1 Today, world lead production is about 2.5 million tons per year, approximately . . .