![]() ![]() Complete success will be impossible without the co-operation of the workman.’ This needs patience and hard work on the part of the doctor. No attempt must be made to hide it or to minimise it, but he must at the same time be shown his own responsibilities in any safety programme. ![]() He must understand fully the dangers of his work. ‘There is only one way to prevent lead poisoning and one way only, and that is to make the process safe.’ In addition, he very wisely states ‘The importance of education of the worker himself must be stressed. It is worth quoting from Lane’s paper as little has changed in the 65 years since its publication. Despite this, effective formal control of lead workers did not occur until the pioneering occupational health work of Ronald Lane in 1949. The general population could also be exposed to significant amounts of lead due to poorly glazed ceramic ware, the use of lead solder in the canning industry (this is postulated as a possible cause of death among members of the fated Franklin expedition to the Northwest Passage), high levels of lead in drinking water, the use of lead compounds in paint and cosmetics and by deposition on crops and dust from industrial and motor vehicle sources. Vernatti (1678) probably made the earliest record of lead poisoning among white-lead workers in England. ![]() Dioscorides (AD 100) knew that ingestion of lead compounds caused colic, paralysis and delirium and later Ramazzini observed that for potters working with lead ‘at first tremors appear in the hands, soon they are paralysed’. Pliny (AD 23–79) stated that lead poisoning was known in his day and that lead workers tied up their faces in loose bags ‘lest they should inhale the pernicious dust’. Hippocrates (370 BC) described a severe attack of colic in a metal extractor and in the second century BC Nicander described the relationship of constipation, colic, pallor and paralysis to the action of lead on the body. As industrial lead production started at least 5000 years ago, it is likely that outbreaks of lead poisoning occurred from this time. Inorganic lead is undoubtedly one of the oldest occupational toxins and evidence of cases of lead poisoning can be found dating back before the Christian era. Inorganic lead, legislation, organic lead, toxicity.
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