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  • Essay / Lead Poisoning Test - 667

    Lead is considered a toxic heavy metal. It is found naturally in the earth's crust. However, it tends to combine with other elements to form lead compounds. (Register, 2011). Additionally, it has no known functions in the body, and if excessively accumulated, acute or chronic, it will cause a wide range of metabolic dysfunctions by interfering with normal metabolic functions (Analytical Research Laboratories, 2012). Historically, most, if not all, humans have accumulated lead in their bodies during their daily lives. In extreme cases, that is, when there is too much lead in the body, it is known to cause lead poisoning. In order to fully understand this phenomenon, we must first recognize it; how lead enters the body, how it is distributed, and how and if it is eliminated. Many factors contribute to increasing the amount of lead in the environment, for example, environmental lead comes from the burning of leaded gasoline, batteries and batteries. foundries and is also found in ink and paper. Additionally, many canned food products are sealed with lead solder (Analytical Research Laboratories, 2012). Due to the large amount of lead in the environment, exposure is unavoidable. Rather, lead can enter the body in three main ways: inhalation, ingestion, or absorption through the skin. It can be inhaled when burned or melted, releasing some of the lead as smoke and/or when lead-containing dust is airborne. In terms of ingestion, lead can be ingested through drinking water, when lead-containing dust particles come into contact with food or food preparation surfaces, etc. In special cases that inv...... middle of paper ...... te in the bone, with a half-life of several years to several decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Therefore, people exposed to lead over a long period of time will have high levels of lead present in their bones compared to their blood and soft tissues. Additionally, lead does not accumulate in bones if it is secreted via urine, about 70% of the time. To a lesser extent, elimination also occurs through stools, sweat, hair and nails. (Leggett et al. 1993). Nonetheless, this article will focus on comparing two significantly different rates of lead ingestion into the body (blood, soft tissue, and bone) from a mathematical perspective. In other words, to make the comparison, various time intervals (short and long) will be taken into account to graphically illustrate the accumulation of lead in the body..