LEAD POISONING

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1607, 14 February 1925, Page 8

LEAD POISONING

SOME OF THE CONSEQUENCES.

Lead-poisoning affords one of the best examples of the usefulness of the old adage that prevention is better than cure.

It is no easy matter to eradicate all traces, but it should be a comparatively simple matter to prevent the lead finding its way into the system. In some cases the victim of leadpoisoning is to be blamed for gross caarelessness. If old Bill likes to break his bread with fingers that have not been washed since he left off his painting work, he is sure to wipe from his fingers on to the bread small particles of lead. The amount at one meal may be minute, but lead accumulates in the body, and at the end of ten years, say from twenty to thirty years, that is, the best years of a man’s life, he has collected a considerable amount of the metal in his body. The consequences of lead-poisoning are numerous.

The patient generally suffers from colic, from headache, and pallor; his kidneys may be affected, and then, in turn the heart may be weakened. There is no limit to the harm that may be done by lead. I am happy to say that the number is rapidly diminishing but there are still cases of paralysis of the wrists, following the intake of small quantities of lead. A certain amount of lead enters the system through the air. The air of a paint shed is filled with the smell of paint and with the minute fleeting particles of compounds of lead.

All buildings where paints are used should be very well ventilated, and, what is more important, the methods of ventilation provided should be used. It is no good having large windows if they are all kept tightly shut.