LEAD-POISONING DUE TO AN EARTHENWARE WINE JUG

A 35-year-old male nurse hospitalized for recurrent episodes of intole rable abdominal pain was found to have non-hemolytic anemia and saturn ism with blood lead level reaching 500 mu g/l. Search for the source o f the lead led to the discovery of an earthenware jug purchased in a C orsica craftsware shop. This jug had been used to hold the patient's d aily consumption of wine (estimated at one-half to three-quarters lite rs per day) in the refrigerator. On the basis of lead release measurem ents using the method described in the EEC directive 84/500 (maximum t olerated limit for crockery = 4 mg lead/litter contents), it was found that the jug released 216 mg/l and estimated that the patient had ing ested 0.8 to 1 mg of soluble lead daily for the past 8 years. The pati ent was successfully treated with chelator agents. This case of lead p oisoning caused by a single earthenware wine jug confirms the need for rigourous governmental directives to control the production and distr ibution of varnished earthenware.