Dr Frank Seymour's report to the Local Government Board on the occurrence of lead poisoning in the Urban District of Guisborough, and its relation to the public water supply.

  • Seymour, Frank.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr Frank Seymour's report to the Local Government Board on the occurrence of lead poisoning in the Urban District of Guisborough, and its relation to the public water supply. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    l(3ft-lianded) is still considerably weaker in the right than in the left hand, and i-ernains of a bine line are still visil)lc. His wife suffered also from colicky pains, dc])ression an<l weakness. She had no lead- line. In the man’s case an examination of the urine showed traces of lead, in the woman’s case no tests wei*e made. Up to this time the water used at the farmhouse where Mr. and Mrs. W. reside, and obtained from the public supply, was stored in a lead-lined tank. Water from this tank was found to contain lead. The water company replaced the tank by one of galvanised iron, and the symptoms indicative of lead poisoning in these cases have since gradually diminished. The next case was that of a woman living in a new house also served by the public supply, where, it may be assumed, the new pipes would be especially susceptible to the plumbo-solvent action of the water if such existed. No tests appear to have been made at the time, but in the following year (November, 1910) on the occurrence of some further cases, water from a tap in this house was analysed and found to contain about grain lead per gallon. It cannot naw be ascertained whether this sample represented the ordinary supply, or was that obtained on first turning the tap after allowing the water to remain in the pipes overnight. Cases of Lead Poisoning or Suspected Lead Poisoning IN 1913. In 1913, cases of lead poisoning or of suspected lead poisoning, hitherto occurring only sporadically as indicated above, w'ere noticed in considerable numbers, so much as to produce wdiat may be termed an epidemic during May, June and July. Dr. Stainthorpe has given me a list of 87 cases applying to him for treatment between March and the beginning of September :— Age 1-20. Age 20-50. Age 50 upwards. Age not o stated. Total. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. M. F. ]^/T(XTc1i ••• ••• ••• — — 1 — — — 1 — .A.pril ••• ••• ••• ••• 1 — 1 iVXny ••• ••• ••• — 2 5 2 1 — 9 8 8 12 J UIIG ••• ••• ••• 2 — 7 8 9 1 4 13 15 99 ••• ••• ••• 1 2 3 9 — — 1 4 5 15 August — 1 — 3 — — — — 4 September (to 5th) ... — — 1 2 — 1 1 3 ••• ••• ••• 3 5 17 24 3 1 7 27 30 57 Total for both sexes... 8 4 1 4 34 87 Since Dr. Stainthorpe has latterly ceased recording all the suspicious cases which he sees, it may w^ell be that the numbers of these in his practice during July, and more cs])ccially August, are greater than those given above, but he is satisfied that the ])re- valence of the illness has distinctly diminished sinee July.