Facts and Firsts of Lead

Collated by Katarzyna Bochynska, Medical Science, University of Wollongong
Created 21^st October 2005
Updated 6 June 2008

Lead is one of the metals of antiquity, and like Saturn – the oldest god and consequently the father of the gods – it has also been referred to as the oldest of metals (Nriagu, 1983).

• 6500 BC - lead discovered in Mesopotamia (today Turkey), first mine
• The oldest piece of lead can be found in British museum dates from 3800 B.C
• 500 BC -300 AD. - Roman lead smelting produces dangerous emissions
• 200 BC - health effects of lead first stated by the Greek physician Dioscerides: "Lead makes the mind give way"
• 100 BC - epidemic outbreak of saturnine gout and sterility among Roman aristocracy
• 100 BC - Greek physicians give clinical description of lead poisoning.

Historical Awareness - "If we were to judge of the interest excited by any medical subject by the number of writings to which it has given birth, we could not but regard the poisoning by lead as the most important to be known of all those that have been treated of, up to the present time." Orfila, 1817

• 15^th century - lead known as poudre de la succession (succession powder)
• 16^th century – the introduction of lead containing cosmetics such as Venetian ceruse and spirits of Saturn
• Lead mentioned by Shakespeare (1564-1616) at least 25 times in his published plays
• 1848 - Tanquerel des Planches, in his treatise, remarks on children placing lead painted toys in their mouths and developing lead colic
• 1886 - publication of first periodic table (Mendeleyev periodic table), lead is included as one of the 63 known elements
• 1887 - US medical authorities diagnose childhood lead poisoning
• 1897 - lead poisoning among Queensland children is documented
• 1904 - Child lead poisoning linked to lead-based paints (article in Australian Medical Gazette by J. Gibson)
• 1909 - France, Belgium and Austria ban white-lead interior paint
• 1914 - Pediatric lead-paint poisoning death from eating crib paint is described
• 1914 – [Many people wrongly believe this to be the year that lead was banned from house paint in Australia. In fact, lead was only limited to 0.1% in house paint in Australia 83 years later, in 1997!]
• 1920 - Introduction of tetraethyl lead as a key for improvement of engine performance
• 1921 - National Lead Company (USA) admits lead is a poison
• 1922 - League of Nations bans white-lead interior paint; US declines to adopt
• 1922 - Tunisia and Greece ban white-lead interior paint
• 1922 - The Health Acts Amendment Act of 1922 in the state of Queensland Australia, says:

  114A(1) No paint containing more than five per centum of soluble lead shall be used or put within four feet from the floor or ground on the outside of any residence, hall school, or other building to which children under the age of fourteen years have access, or on any veranda railing, gate or fence.

• 1923 – First tetraethyl lead poisoning deaths occur
• 1926 – Great Britain,  and Sweden, ban white – lead interior paint
• 1927 – Poland bans white lead interior paint
• 1931 – Spain and Yugoslavia ban white lead interior paint
• 1943- Report concludes eating lead paint chips causes physical and neurological disorders, behavior, learning and intelligence problems in children
• 1952 – many cases of children lead poisoning associated with white- lead paint are reported and publicized in popular press in USA
• 1955- CPSC lowered the limit of lead in paint to 1.0 %
• 1971- Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act passed
• 1971- CDC lowers the limit for a lead poisoned child to 40 micrograms /decilitre (µg/dL)
• 1975- CDC lowers the limit for a lead poisoned child to 30 µg/dL
• 1977 – the WHO recommends the tolerable dietary intake of lead as 430 µg/day micrograms/day
• 1978 – USA bans white lead paint (limit of lead in paint below 0.06%)
• 1979- association of lead exposure and neuropsychological deficits in children described in the New England Journal of Medicine
• 1980 - National Academy of Sciences calls leaded gasoline greatest source of atmospheric lead pollution
• 1985- CDC lowers the limit for a lead poisoned child to 25 µg/dL

• 1990 - Leaded gasoline in cars is banned in Canada
• 1991 - CDC establishes lead concentration safety limit as less than or equal to 10 µg/dL
• 1991 – establishment of Lead Group in Australia
• 1991 – the Canadian Paint and Coatings Association voluntarily agrees to limit lead content in consumer paint to 0.06%
• 1992 - the maximum lead content of domestic paint reduced to 0.25 % in Australia
• 1993 – the national (Australia) change of lead blood level standard from 25 µg/dL to less than or equal to 10 µg/dl
• 1994 - the UN commission called on governments worldwide to switch from leaded to unleaded petrol
• 1994 – study cited by American Academy of Pediatrics shows direct relationship between lead exposure and IQ deficits in children.
• 1995 - ATSDR declares lead the number one on CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances
• 1996 – Lead is declared the highest priority by the OECD for country-specific management plans
• 1996 – the association of elevated lead levels and destructive behavior in adolescent boys reported (Journal of the American Medical Association, 7 February 1996).
• 1996 – NHMRC sets the acceptable lead level in drinking water as 0.01mg/l
• 1997 - in Australia the maximum lead content of domestic paint reduced to 0.1%
• 1999 – Australia as the first country bans candles fitted with metal wick core containing lead

The pre-industrial lead blood levels in humans is estimated to be around 0.016 µg/dl, thus 50-200 times lower than the lowest reported levels today and around 625 times lower than "safe" value of less than or equal to 10 µg/dl.

• 2000 - the American Academy of Pediatrics and Pediatric Academic Societies report that cognitive defects in math, reading, short – term memory may occur at lead levels as low as 2.5 µg/dl
• 2000 – ecological and social studies suggest the association of gasoline lead exposure with increased crime rate
• 2000 - by the end of 2000, 42 countries phased out lead from petrol
• 2002 - European Union bans leaded petrol
• 2002- Australia phased out leaded petrol with exception of Avgas still permitted for water sports, motor car and motor bike racing
• 2004 - WHO/ Europe include lead on the list of Hazardous Chemicals: main risk for children's health as the most important neurotoxin for children

* Abbreviations in order of appearance in fact sheet:

CPSC – Consumer Product Safety Commission, USA
CDC- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA
WHO- World Health Organization
UN- United Nations
ATSDR- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, USA
OECD- Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
NHMRC- National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia

REFERENCES

1. A small dose of lead - LEAD DOSSIER - www.asmalldoseof.org/toxicology/lead.php (Accessed 4th October 2005)
2. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERIODIC TABLE -www.wou.edu/las/physci/ch412/perhist.htm (Accessed 10th October 2005)
3. Childhood lead exposure and housing sources: Does a problem exist in Ontario? Position paper and resolution adopted by the Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA), 2004
4. Effect of lead on human health - www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/environ/lead-plomb_e.html (Accessed 18th October 2005)
5. History of lead advertising - www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/project/enviro/hazard/lead/lead-advertising (Accessed 4^th October 2005)
6. Lead Poisoning: A Historical Perspective - www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm (Accessed 4th October 2005)
7. Lead: The Relevance Of History, from the book Deceit and Denial: the Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, Lead 11 (3) 2001 - www.mealeys.com/ledcom.html (Accessed 7th May 2003)
8. Deficits in psychologic and classroom performance of children with elevated dentine lead levels by Needleman NL, C Gunnoe, A Leviton, R Reed, H Peresie, C Maher, and P Barrett, NEJM 300: 689-694, 1979 - http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/300/13/689 (Accessed 1st September 2004)
9. Lead and lead poisoning in antiquity by Nriagu J.O. John Wiley & Sons Inc. 1983
10. The secret history of lead by Jamie Lincoln Kitman, The Nation, 20th March 2000 - http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000320/kitman (Accessed 6 June 2008).
11. Lead effects - http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2002/110-10/focus.html (Accessed 4th October 2005)

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