Lead Factory Research Articles

Values of Mobilized Lead by Ca-EDTA in the Employees of a Lead Factory

Values of Mobilized Lead by Ca-EDTA in the Employees of a Lead Factory

Review of recent advances of lead in clinical research.

‘They were the respectable ones. Well, what did they get by their respectability? I’ll tell you. One of them worked in a white lead factory twelve hours a day for nine shillings a week until she died of lead poisoning. She only expected to get her hands a little paralysed; but she died. … That was worth being respectable for, wasn’t it? …’ (Mrs Warren’s Profession, George Bernard Shaw, 1902).

The Distribution of Lead in the Brains of two Lead Factory Operatives dying suddenly

Five cases of fatal lead poisoning occurred between 1884-6 among the employés of a certain white lead factory in the East of London. The cases presented the following common characters. They were all adult women, aged from 18 to 33. They had all worked at the factory for short periods from three to twelve months. They all exhibited mild symptoms of plumbism, such as a blue line round the gums and more or less ill-defined indisposition; paralyses were absent. They were all in their usual state of health within a few days or hours preceding death. Death was unexpected—mostly sudden. In four cases it was preceded by epileptic fits and coma, but in the fifth case no convulsions were noted, although they may have occurred during the night.