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LEAD POISONING, or PLUMBISM

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 321 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEAD POISONING, or PLUMBISM , a " disease of occupations," which is itself the cause of organic disease, particularly of the See also:nervous and urinary systems. The workpeople affected are principally those engaged in See also:potteries where lead-glaze is used; but other See also:industries in which See also:health is similarly affected are See also:file-making, See also:house-See also:painting and See also:glazing, See also:glass-making, See also:copper-working, See also:coach-making, See also:plumbing and gasfitting, See also:printing, See also:cutlery, and generally those occupations in which lead is concerned. The symptoms of chronic lead poisoning vary within very wide limits, from See also:colic and See also:constipation up to See also:total See also:blindness, See also:paralysis, See also:convulsions and See also:death. They are thus described by Dr J. T. Arlidge (Diseases of Occupations) The See also:poison finds its way gradually into the whole See also:mass of the circulating See also:blood, and exerts its effects mainly on the nervous See also:system, paralysing See also:nerve-force and with it See also:muscular See also:power. Its victims become of a sallow-waxy See also:hue; the functions of the See also:stomach and bowels are deranged, appetite fails and painful colic .with constipation supervenes. The loss of power is generally shown first in the fingers, hands and wrists, and the See also:condition known as " See also:wrist-drop " soon follows, rendering the victim useless for See also:work. The palsy will extend to the shoulders, and after no See also:long See also:time to the legs also. Other See also:organs frequently involved are the kidneys, the See also:tissue of which becomes permanently damaged; whilst the sight is weakened or even lost. Dr M`Aldowie, See also:senior physician to the See also:North See also:Staffordshire Infirmary, has stated that " in the pottery See also:trade lead is very slow in producing serious effects compared with certain other industries." In his experience the See also:average See also:period of working in lead before serious lesions See also:manifest themselves is 18 years for See also:females and 222 years for See also:males. But some individuals fall victims to the worst forms of plumbism after a few months' or even See also:weeks' exposure to the danger.

See also:

Young persons are more readily affected than those of mature See also:age, and See also:women more than men. In addition, there seems to be an See also:element of See also:personal susceptibility, the nature of which is not understood. Some persons " work in the lead " for twenty, See also:forty or fifty years without the slightest See also:ill effects; others have attacks whenever they are brought into contact with it. Possibly the difference is due to the See also:general See also:state of health; robust persons resist the poison successfully, those with impoverished blood and feeble constitution are mastered by it. Lead enters the See also:body chiefly through the See also:nose and mouth, being inspired in the See also:form of dust or swallowed with See also:food eaten with unwashed hands. It is very See also:apt to get under the nails, and is possibly absorbed in this way through the skin. Personal care and cleanliness are therefore of the greatest importance. A factory surgeon of See also:great experience in the See also:English Potteries has stated that seventeen out of twenty cases of lead-poisoning in the See also:china and earthenware See also:industry are due to carelessness (The Times, 8th See also:October 1898). The See also:Home See also:Office in See also:England has from time to time made See also:special rules for workshops and workpeople, with the See also:object of minimizing or preventing the occurrence of lead-poisoning; and in 1895 notification of cases was made compulsory. The health of workpeople in the Potteries was the subject of a special inquiry by a scientific See also:committee in 1893. The committee stated that " the general truth that the potteries occupation is one fraught with injury to health and See also:life is beyond dispute," and that " the ill effects of the trade are referable to two See also:chief causes—namely, dust and the poison of lead." Of these the inhalation of See also:clay and See also:flint dust was the more important. It led to See also:bronchitis, pulmonary See also:tuberculosis and See also:pneumonia, which were the most prevalent disorders among potters, and responsible for 70% of the mortality.

That from lead the committee did not See also:

attempt to estimate, but they found that plumbism was less prevalent than in past times, and expressed the See also:opinion " that a large See also:part of the mortality from lead poisoning is avoidable; although it must always be See also:borne in mind that no arrangements or rules, with regard to the work itself, can entirely obviate the effects of the poison to which workers are exposed, because so much depends upon the individual and the observance of personal care and cleanliness." They recommended the See also:adoption of certain special rules in the workshops, with the See also:objects of protecting young persons from the lead, of minimizing the evils of dust, and of promoting cleanliness, particularly in regard to meals. Some of these recommendations were adopted and applied with See also:good results. With regard to the See also:suggestion that " only leadless glazes should be used on earthenware," they did not " see any immediate prospect of such glazes becoming universally applicable to pottery manufacture," and therefore turned their See also:attention to the question of " fritting " the lead. It may be explained that lead is used in china and earthenware to give the See also:external glaze which renders the naturally porous See also:ware watertight. Both " See also:white " and " red " lead are used. The lead is added to other ingredients, which have been " fritted " or fused together and then ground very See also:fine in See also:water, making a thick creamy liquid into which the articles are dipped. After dipping the glaze dries quickly, and on being " fired " in the See also:kiln it becomes fused by the See also:heat into the See also:familiar glassy See also:surface. In the manufacture of ware with enamelled See also:colours, glaze is mixed with the pigment to form a See also:flux, and such colours are used either moist or in the form of a dry See also:powder. " Fritting " the lead means mixing it with the other ingredients of the glaze beforehand and fusing them all together under great heat into a See also:kind of rough glass, which is then ground to make the glaze. Treated in this way the lead combines with the other ingredients and becomes less soluble, and therefore less dangerous, than when added afterwards in the raw state. The committee (1893) thought it " reasonable to suppose that the fritting of lead might ultimately be found universally practicable," but declared that though fritting " no doubt diminishes the danger of lead-poisoning," they " could not regard all fritts as equally innocuous." In the See also:annual See also:report of the chief inspector of factories for 1897, it was stated that there had been " material improvement in dust conditions " in the potting industry, but " of lead-poisoning unfortunately the same could not be said, the number of See also:grave cases reported, and particularly cases of blindness, having ominously increased of See also:late." This appears to have been largely due to the erroneous inclusion among potting processes of " litho-See also:transfer making," a See also:colour industry in which girls are employed. New special rules were imposed in 1899 prohibiting the employment of persons under fifteen in the dangerous processes, ordering a monthly examination of all women and young persons working in lead by the certifying surgeon, with power to suspend those showing symptoms of poisoning, and providing for the more effectual removal of dust and the better enforcement of cleanliness.

At the same time a scientific inquiry was ordered into the practicability of dispensing with lead in glazes or of substituting fritted compounds for the raw carbonate. The scientific experts reported in 1899, recommending that the use of raw lead should be absolutely prohibited, and expressing the opinion that the greater amount of earthenware could be successfully glazed without any lead. These views were in advance of the opinions held by See also:

practical potters, and met with xvI.'Ia good See also:deal of opposition. By certain manufacturers consider-able progress had been made in diminishing the use of raw lead and towards the See also:discovery of satisfactory leadless glazes; but it is a long step from individual experiments to the wholesale compulsory revolution of the processes of manufacture in so large and varied an industry, and in the See also:face of See also:foreign competitors hampered by no such regulations. The materials used by each manufacturer have been arrived at by a long See also:process of experience, and they are such as to suit the particular goods he supplies for his particular See also:market. It is therefore difficult to apply a See also:uniform See also:rule without jeopardizing the prosperity of the industry, which supports a See also:population of 250,000 in the Potteries alone. However, the bulk of the manufacturers agreed to give up the use of raw lead, and to fritt all their glazes in future, time being allowed to effect the See also:change of process; but they declined to be See also:bound to any particular See also:composition of glaze for the reasons indicated. In 1901 the Home Office brought forward a new set of special rules. Most of these were framed to strengthen the provisions for securing cleanliness, removing dust, &c., and were accepted with a few modifications. But the question of making even more stringent regulations, even to the extent of making the use of lead-glaze illegal altogether, was still agitated; and in 'gob the Home Office again appointed an See also:expert committee to reinvestigate the subject. They reported in 1910, and made various recommendations in detail for strengthening the existing regulations; but while encouraging the use of leadless glaze in certain sorts of See also:common ceramic ware, they pointed out that, without the use of lead, certain other sorts could either not be made at all or only at a cost or See also:sacrifice of quality which would See also:entail the loss of important markets. In 1908 Dr Collis made an inquiry into the increase of plumbism in connexion with the smelting of metals, and he considered the increase in the cases of poisoning reported to be due to the third See also:schedule of the Workmen's See also:Compensation See also:Act, (I) by causing the prevalence of pre-existing plumbism to come to See also:light, (2) by the tendency this fostered to replace men suspected of lead impregnation by new hands amongst whom the incidence is necessarily greater.

End of Article: LEAD POISONING, or PLUMBISM

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