1980/03/14 by Dorothy M. Settle, Clair C. Patterson · 3 citations
Environmental Science · #Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity #Heavy metals in environment #Mercury impact and mitigation studies
paper · doi:10.1126/science.6986654
openalex publication_date 1980/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Lead contamination in canned tuna, exceeding natural concentrations 10,000-fold, went undiscovered for decades because of analytical error. The magnitude of this pollution effect helps explain the difference between the lead concentration in the diets of present-day Americans (0.2 part per million) and inthe diets of prehistoric peoples (estimated to be less than 0.002 part per million). It also explains how skeletal concentrations of lead in typical Americans became elevated 500-fold above the natural concentrations measured in bones of Peruvians who lived in an unpolluted environment 1800 years ago. It has been tacitly assumed that natural biochemical effects of lead in human cells have been studied, but this is not so because reagents, nutrients, and controls used in laboratory and field studies have been unknowingly contaminated with lead far in excess of naturally occurring levels. An unrecognized form of poisoning caused by this escessive exposure to lead may affect most Americans because magnitudes of biochemical dysfunctions are proportional to degrees of exposure.