THE TREATMENT of both acute and chronic lead poisoning in children has been unsatisfactory; acute encephalopathy leading to death or gross mental defect in a high proportion of instances, while the less dramatic forms of infantile plumbism have frequently been followed by failure of orderly cerebral maturation.1 Various methods of treatment, such as surgical decompression, measures directed at depositing circulating lead in the skeleton, deleading with sodium citrate or dimercaprol (BAL), have had little influence on the outcome. Recent publications have suggested that edathamil calcium-disodium (calcium disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; Ca EDTA; calcium versenate) is an effective agent in safely and rapidly removing lead from the body.* The drug is a chelating agent of the following structual formula: It is soluble in water and the usual watery intravenous solutions such as liquid dextrose and isotonic sodium chloride solution. It forms un-ionized soluble very stable complexes with metallic ions, the two nitrogen