Lead in the 

Environment

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 957
Lead in the 

Environment

T. G. Levering, Editor

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 957

A compilation of papers on the 

abundance and distribution of 

lead in rocks, soils, plants, 

and the atmosphere, and on methods 

of analysis for lead used by the 

U.S. Geological Survey

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1976
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

THOMAS S. KLEPPE, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

V. E. McKekey, Director

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publkation Data

Main entry under title:

Lead in the environment.

(Geological Survey Professional Paper 957)

Bibliography: p.

1. Lead 2. Geochemistry. 3. Lead Analysis.

I. Levering, Tom Gray, 1921- H. Series: United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 957.

QE516.P3L4 553'.44 76-7962

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, D.C. 20402 

Stock Number 024-001-02911-1
CONTENTS

 Page

Summary, by T. G. Lovering........................................................................................................ 1

Inorganic chemistry of lead in water, by J. D. Hem.................................................................... 5

Organic chemistry of lead in natural water systems, by R. L. Wershaw..................................... 13

Distribution of principal lead deposits in the continental United States, by A. V. Heyl.......... 17

Migration of lead during oxidation and weathering of lead deposits, by Lyman C. Huff......... 21

Lead in igneous and metamorphic rocks and in their rock-forming minerals,

by Michael Fleischer............................................................................................................... 25

Abundance of lead in sedimentary rocks, sediments, and fossil fuels, by T. G. Lovering.......... 31

Lead content of water, by M. J. Fishman and J. D. Hem............................................................ 35

Lead in soils, by R. R. Tidball..................................................................................................... 43

Lead in vegetation, by H. L. Cannon........................................................................................... 53

Lead in the atmosphere, natural and artificially occurring lead, and the effects of lead

on health, by H. L. Cannon.................................................................................................. 73

Analytical methods for the determination of lead, by F. N. Ward and M. J. Fishman.............. 81

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

FIGURE 1. Diagram showing fields of stability for solid species and dominant solute species in system Pb+H2O as functions of pH

and redox potential................................................................................................................................................................... 6

2. Diagram showing fields of stability for solids and solubility of lead in system Pb+CO2+S+HX) at 25°C and 1 atm pressure.... 7

3. Map showing principal lead deposits of the United States............................................................................................................. 18

4. Graph and sketch showing relationship between unnamed vein and geochemical anomaly in residual soil, Porters

Grove Range, Wis...................................................................................................................................................................... 22

5. Histograms of lead distribution in granite, granodiorite, basalt, and gneiss................................................................................. 26

6. Histograms showing frequency of occurrence of lead in K-feldspar from granitic pegmatite and granitic rocks and in

plagioclase from pegmatite....................................................................................................................................................... 28

7. Graph showing lead content of common sedimentary rocks.......................................................................................................... 32

8. Map and histogram showing distribution of lead in soils and other surficial materials of the United States............................. 48

9. Map and histogram showing concentration and distribution of lead in soils of Missouri ........................................................... 50

10. Graph showing comparative lead content of soils and plants near Ameka lode, Nigeria............................................................. 60

11. Graph showing lead in grass collected for 1,000 feet from highway in 1961 and in 1969............................................................. 67

TABLES

Page

TABLE 1. Standard Gibbs free energies of formation of lead species and related solutes................................................................................ 6

2. Chemical equilibria and solubility equations for lead species in hydroxide and carbonate domains........................................... 7

3. Observed and calculated saturation concentrations of lead in U.S. surface waters collected during October and

November 1970........................................................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Range of copper, lead, and zinc content of soils collected near ore veins....................................................................................... 22

5. Ore-metal content of stream-sediment samples (minus 80-mesh) collected in and downstream from the Tombstone

district, Arizona.......................................................................................................................................................................... 23

in
IV CONTENTS

Page 

TABLE 6. Mean lead contents of plants compared with mean lead contents of associated soils in both nonmineralized and

mineralized areas........................................................................................................................................................................ 24

7. Published estimates of lead contents of igneous and metamorphic rocks....................................................................................... 25

8. Summary of published analyses of lead content of igneous and metamorphic rocks..................................................................... 27

9. Range of variation of Ba/Pb ratio in igneous and metamorphic rocks.......................................................................................... 27

10. Lead content of feldspars..............................................................................................................................,...................................^ 27

11. Lead content of other rock-forming minerals.................^................................................................................................................ 29

12. Maximum and minimum concentrations of lead found in surface waters of the United States and Puerto Rico from

1960 to 1971 ............................................................................. 36

13. Lead concentrations in selected surface waters of the United States................................................................................................ 37

14. Maximum and minimum concentrations of lead found in ground waters of several States and Puerto Rico from

1960 to 1971.......................................................................... 39

15. Lead concentrations in residual soils from Wisconsin, grouped according to pH......................................................................... 44

16. Lead concentrations in selected soils developed under a variety of soil-forming factors................................................... 45

17. Lead concentrations in selected Scottish soils developed from different parent materials.............................................................. 46

18. Mean concentrations of lead in selected parent material types and derivative soils........................................................................ 46

19. Lead concentrations in tropical soils developed on different parent materials............................................................................... 46

20. Distribution of lead concentration and organic matter in soil profiles from the tropical climatic zone....................................... 46

21. Distribution of lead concentration in soil profiles from the temperate climatic zone.................................................................... 47

22. Cycling of lead in different environments..............................................................................................................".......................- 54

23. Normal lead concentrations in various classes of vegetation........................................................................................................... 55

24. Lead in garden produce..................................................................................................................................................................... 55

25. Seasonal variations of lead in trees and soils.................................................................................................................................... 55

26. Concentrations of lead in unpeeled and peeled garden produce from Maryland............................................................................ 57

27. Effects of lead and other metals on growth from four plant families............................................................................................. 59

28. Lead in conifer twigs, needles, and subjacent mull, Coeur d'Alene district, Idaho......................................................................... 60

29. Lead content of vegetation and soils from several mining districts................................................................................................. 52

30. Maximum lead and zinc contents of plants and drained peat, Orleans County, N.Y.................................................................... 53

31. Lead indicator and accumulator plants rooted in mineralized ground........................................................................................... 54

32. Lead contents of plants and soils as related to smelter contamination in Oklahoma and Colorado............................................. 66

33. Comparison of lead content between on-road and off-road samples of some soils and plants in Missouri.................................. 58

34. Lead concentrations in surface air in 1967 from selected sites along the 80th Meridian................................................................ 74

35. Lead emissions in the United States, 1968........................................................................................................................................ 74

36. Normal lead content of some uncontaminated natural substances.................................................................................................. §6

37. List of minerals and alloys in which lead is a major constitutuent................................................................................................ g6
LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT SUMMARY

By T. G. LOVERING

Lead is a soft, heavy, malleable, relatively inert metal 

with a low melting point (327.4°C), which has been 

known and used by man since ancient times. It has the 

chemical symbol Pb (from its Latin name plumbum), 

atomic number 82, and atomic weight of 207.2, making it 

the heaviest of the common metals. It is the stable end 

product formed by the radioactive decay of uranium.

Metallic lead was used in antiquity for jewelry, 

plumbing, and cooking utensils. In modern times metallic 

lead and lead alloys are extensively used for storage battery 

plates, sheathing for electrical cables, small-caliber 

ammunition, shielding for X-ray apparatus and atomic 

reactors, type metal, bearing metal, and solder. Lead 

compounds are also important as components in the 

manufacture of paint, ceramics, and glass and as an antiknock additive in gasoline. In 1970 the United States 

produced about 570,000 tons of lead and consumed about 

1,380,000 tons. Much of the excess consumption was 

derived from recycled scrap metal, and the rest was 

imported chiefly from Canada and Mexico.

Ores of lead and zinc are often closely associated in 

deposits formed by replacement of limestone or dolomite. 

Lead ore is commonly present together with ores of 

copper, zinc, silver, arsenic, and antimony in complex 

vein deposits that are genetically related to silicious 

igneous intrusive rocks, but lead ore may occur in a variety 

of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary host rocks.

Although both metallic lead and the common lead 

minerals are nearly insoluble in pure water, they are 

appreciably soluble in certain organic acids; likewise, 

some of the lead compounds produced industrially are 

also considerably more water soluble than the element. If 

lead enters the human body in soluble form it accumulates 

there and can cause lead poisoning.

Airborne lead in smoke from smelters, or from the 

coking of coal with a high lead content, may produce toxic 

effects in plants, grazing animals, and humans exposed to 

the smoke for a long time. Lead poisoning may also result 

from the ingestion of lead-bearing paint by small children 

or of lead leached from pottery glazes by the citric acid in 

fruit juices.

Lead compounds released into the atmosphere in the 

exhaust fumes of automobiles have produced abnormally

high concentrations of lead in the blood of individuals 

continuously exposed to these fumes for long periods of 

time, but as yet there is no established instance of lead 

poisoning resulting directly from this source.

MIGRATION OF LEAD IN THE NATURAL 

ENVIRONMENT

Natural concentrations of lead in lead ore deposits do 

not normally move appreciably in normal ground or 

surface water, because any lead dissolved from primary 

sulfide ore tends to combine with carbonate or sulfate ions 

to form insoluble lead carbonate or lead sulfate or else to be 

adsorbed by ferric hydroxide. Mechanical disintegration 

and transportation of these insoluble lead compounds can 

remove lead from the surface of lead ore bodies and 

disperse it to some extent. Lead can also be leached by acid 

waters, particularly those that are rich in organic material, 

and travel in solution as soluble lead organic complexes. 

In this form it can be taken up by plants and enter the food 

chain, but examples are rare. In regions characterized by 

alkaline, neutral, or saline waters and soils, naturally 

occurring forms of lead do not enter either water or plants 

except in very minute traces. Lead minerals in a nonreactive host rock such as sandstone or quartzite have been 

known to dissolve in acid waters in amounts toxic to 

vegetation in a small area, but there are no known 

instances of lead poisoning in humans related to the 

natural occurrence of lead.

ABUNDANCE OF LEAD IN ROCKS, SEDIMENTS, 

FOSSIL FUELS, AND MINERALS

The average abundance of lead in the Earth's crust is 

approximately 15 ppm (parts per million), which is 

equivalent to half an ounce of lead per ton of rock. The 

lead contents of the common rock types that make up the 

crust of the earth range from about 30 ppm for granitic 

rocks, rhyolite, and black shale to about 1 ppm for 

evaporite sediments, basalt, and the ultramafic igneous 

rocks such as dunite, which are rich in iron and 

magnesium and poor in silica (table 36).

Unconsolidated continental sediments have a mean lead 

content very close to the mean crustal abundance of 15 

ppm, but unconsolidated deep sea muds are appreciably
LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

richer in lead, containing an average of about 60 ppm lead, 

and concentrations as high as 0.2 percent lead have been 

reported in sediments precipitated from hot brines in the 

Red Sea (table 36).

Coal contains an average lead concentration of about 10 

ppm, and petroleum an average of less than 1 ppm of lead 

(table 36). Most of the lead in these fossil fuels concentrates 

in their ash when they are burned, although it has been 

estimated that during industrial burning coal may release 

as much as 6 percent of its original lead content into the 

atmosphere. Petroleum produces far less ash than coal, 

and inorganic constituents are much more highly 

concentrated in its ash.

Although lead is a major constituent of more than 200 

known minerals (table 37), most of these are very rare, and 

only three are commonly found in sufficient abundance to 

form minable lead deposits. These three are galena, the 

simple sulfide of lead (PbS); anglesite, the lead sulfate 

(PbSCu); and cerrusite, the lead carbonate (PbCO3 ). 

Galena is a common primary constituent of sulfide ore 

deposits; anglesite and cerrusite normally form by the 

oxidation of galena close to the surface.

Lead is also present in trace amounts in many of the 

common rock-forming minerals (table 36). The amount of 

lead in any one of these minerals varies widely, and the 

greater the normal lead content of such a mineral, the 

greater the observed variation is likely to be. For instance, 

potash feldspar (orthoclase or microcline) generally contains the most lead of any of the common silicate minerals; 

yet, whereas samples from one group of pegmatite dikes in 

Norway yielded 280 ppm lead, similar samples from 

another group of pegmatite dikes in the same region contained less than 10 ppm. The maximum amount of lead 

this mineral can contain is unknown, but 2,800 ppm lead 

has been reported in a sample of a green variety of microcline called amazonite.

The common silicate minerals found in igneous rocks, 

in order of decreasing lead content, are (1) potash feldspar; 

(2) plagioclase feldspar and muscovite mica; (3) 

pyroxenes, amphiboles, and biotite mica; and (4) quartz. 

The common minerals of chemically precipitated sedimentary rocks (calcite, dolomite, gypsum, and halite) all 

normally contain less than 10 ppm lead. The lead content 

of the sedimentary clay minerals is extremely variable but 

is commonly on the order of 10-20 ppm.

NATURAL ABUNDANCE OF LEAD IN WATER

The concentration of lead in river water is low under 

natural conditions (table 36). Although small amounts of 

lead are widely distributed as a minor constituent in rock 

and soil minerals, lead is only slowly released by 

weathering processes. Even where the element is 

concentrated in ore deposits, the low solubility of lead in 

water that contains dissolved carbon dioxide species and

has a pH near neutrality generally will maintain concentrations of lead in solution below a few tenths of a milligram per litre. The waterborne element tends to be 

complexed by relatively insoluble organic matter and may 

also be extracted from water by organisms.

The median concentration of lead in river and lake 

water of the United States is about 2 /xg/1 (micrograms per 

litre). Concentrations of lead in seawater range from a few 

hundredths of a microgram per litre (a value of 0.03 fig/I 

is widely quoted) in the deeper parts of the ocean basins to 

0.4 /xg/1 observed at several places both nearshore and far 

offshore in surface waters of the Pacific Ocean. The higher 

nearshore and near-surface concentrations, however, are 

ascribable to atmospheric fallout of lead particles or 

washing out of such particles by rainfall. Concentrations 

of lead in rainfall over the United States have been 

reported to average 34 jug/1 over a 7-month period in 1966 

and 1967, with a median value of about 10 ju.g/1. When the 

distribution of sampling points is correlated with reported 

concentrations, results show strongly the effects of industrial air pollution near cities.

ABUNDANCE OF LEAD IN SOILS

Soil samples collected from nearly a thousand localities 

throughout the conterminous United States ranged in lead 

content from < 10 to 700 ppm and had a mean lead concentration of 16 ppm (Shacklette, 1971); only 6 percent of these 

samples contained more than 30 ppm of lead (table 36). 

Many of the soil samples with lead content in excess of 100 

ppm were obtained from localities in western Colorado, 

but others came from widely scattered isolated sites.

Lead content of young residual soils is strongly 

influenced by that of the parent rock from which they are 

derived; however, this relationship is modified, and may 

be obscured, by other factors in mature soils developed on 

deeply weathered parent material. These factors include 

oxidation and reduction reactions, linking of organic 

compounds by lead ions (chelation), base exchange 

reactions by clay, adsorption of lead by hydroxides of iron 

and manganese, local solution and transportation by 

organic acids, and cycling by vegetation. In general, lead is 

more mobile in acid soils than in alkaline soils, tending to 

be leached out of the former and to form residual concentrations in the latter. Relatively high total-lead concentrations in alkaline soil may reflect residual concentration of lead in an insoluble form, which is not available to 

plants.

LEAD IN VEGETATION

Lead occurs naturally in small amounts in all plants 

(table 36). The concentration of lead in vegetation varies 

not only with the individual species, but also as a complex 

function of climatic variations, parts of the plant, 

composition of the soil in which the plant grows and of 

the rock from which this soil is derived, and finally the
SUMMARY

effects of artificial contamination of both the water that 

nourishes the plant and the air that surrounds it.

Anomalously high concentrations of lead in plants may 

reflect natural contamination from lead dsposits or artificial contamination of the plant's environment by man. 

Extensive analyses of plants from primitive areas, 

unaffected by either of these sources of contamination, are 

required to establish normal background values for lead in 

natural vegetation.

Median concentrations of lead in the ash of uncontaminated natural vegetation are highest for lichens (1,000 

ppm), an order of magnitude lower in mosses (lOOppm), 

about 30-50 ppm in evergreen trees, and about 15-30 ppm 

in deciduous trees, shrubs and grasses; however, all of 

these types of vegetation exhibit a wide range in lead 

content (commonly an order of magnitude) on both sides 

of the median. The ash of uncontaminated domestic fruit 

and vegetable samples from the United States has a median 

lead content close to 10 ppm, which is the lower limit of 

the analytical method. The observed range for lead in the 

ash of these foods is from <10 to 100 ppm. The lead 

content of these plants expressed in dry weight varies from 

about one-fourth to less than one-tenth the lead content of 

the ash. Thus the highest observed lead-in-ash content of 

100 ppm, for a tomato sample, corresponds to a dry-weight 

lead content of about 7 ppm and to a lead content for a 

fresh tomato of less than 1 ppm.

Studies of seasonal variation in the lead content of trees 

suggest that lead concentration is highest in early spring at 

the beginning of the growing season, declines during the 

summer, and rises again in the fall. Lead also tends to 

concentrate in certain parts of a growing plant. In trees, 

the highest lead concentrations are usually found in the 

older twigs; somewhat less lead occurs in the young twigs, 

seeds, and trunk wood, still less in the leaves or needles, 

and least of all in the roots. On the other hand, lead 

content of the leaves of certain vegetables appears to be 

higher than that of their stems, and the lead in fruits and 

root vegetables is largely concentrated in the skin or peel.

There appears to be a general tendency for lead to be 

more abundant in plant ash than in the soil, and more 

abundant in the soil than in the bedrock, but there are 

many exceptions.

The knowledge that certain plant species have the 

ability to absorb anomalous amounts of lead from leadrich soils and their underlying parent materials has been 

used as a biogeochemical tool in prospecting for lead 

deposits for a quarter of a century. These accumulator 

plants include certain species of both evergreen and 

deciduous trees, as well as many shrubs and smaller plants.

Contamination of food and forage crops by artificial 

lead compounds contained in insecticide sprays, 

automobile exhaust fumes, and industrial smoke is a 

matter of concern to public health workers. Anomalously 

high lead concentrations have been found in leafy

vegetables and grasses grown in proximity to major 

highways, in crops grown on soil with a long history of 

treatment with lead-bearing insecticides, and in crops 

exposed to fallout from smelter smoke.

LEAD IN THE ATMOSPHERE

Lead enters the atmosphere largely in the exhaust fumes 

from internal combustion engines and, to a lesser extent, 

from the smoke produced by large-scale industrial 

burning of coal. Consequently the lead content of the air is 

highest in urban industrial areas and lowest in rural areas 

(table 36). The average lead concentration in the air of 

large metropolitan areas is about 2.5 /xg/m3 . In rural areas 

it is less than 0.5 /xg/m3 . The amount of lead present in the 

air at any particular place varies with traffic density, air 

temperature, and atmospheric conditions. The leadbearing particles in the air are heavy and tend to collect in 

low areas with poor air circulation; lead concentrations 

greater than 40 ju,g/m3 have been measured in the air of 

vehicular tunnels. In spite of this tendency of lead to 

accumulate close to the ground, traces of it enter the upper 

atmosphere and are carried widely around the earth to 

return to the surface in rain or snow. The lead content of a 

snow sample collected in 1965 from the Greenland ice cap 

was approximately 0.4 jug/1 of melted snow as compared 

to about 0.05 /xg/1 in melted ice that had formed in 1864.

METHODS FOR DETECTION OF LEAD

Lead may be determined in water, soil, and rock, and in 

the ash of plants and organic fuels by a wide variety of 

methods. The analytical methods employed for both water 

and solids in the laboratories of the U.S. Geological 

Survey include optical emission spectrography and 

atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In addition, X-ray, 

spectrographic, and colorimetric methods are employed 

for the analysis of rock, mineral, and soil samples; electron 

microprobe analysis of polished ore samples is used for the 

nondestructive determination of lead in high concentrations in small mineral grains.

Water samples are filtered to remove solid particles and 

are then acidified. In the atomic absorption method a 

lead-scavenging organic compound is first added to the 

water and then extracted with an insoluble organic fluid 

(methyl isobutyl ketone); this fluid is then introduced into 

the flame of the atomic absorption spectrophotometer. In 

the emission spectrographic method, lead and other 

metals are first precipitated by adding a suitable reagent to 

the water sample. The precipitate is filtered, dried, and 

introduced into the arc of the emission spectrograph for 

the simultaneous determination of the metals present.

The optical emission spectrograph is the most widely 

used laboratory tool for chemical analysis of solid samples 

that do not contain large amounts of organic carbon, 

because this method provides a simultaneous analysis for a 

large number of elements on a very small quantity of
LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

sample material. In routine operation it will normally 

determine lead in concentrations as low as 5 ppm. Specific 

analyses for small traces of lead in such materials are made 

by the atomic absorption method, which, in routine 

operation, will give good results for lead in amounts as 

small as 1 ppm, and, with special sample preparation, this 

method can be used to detect even smaller amounts. 

Colorimetric methods with a sensitivity to about 20 ppm 

of lead are used for rapid field tests in reconnaissance geochemical exploration.

UNITS AND NOTATION

The amount of lead in natural materials is expressed in 

different ways for different substances by the authors of 

this report. Lead concentrations are generally reported in 

the following units:

For water 

[i. g/l=micrograms per litre 

mg/l=milligrams per litre

For solids 

ppb=parts per billion

ppm=parts per million

ju,g/g=micrograms per gram

oz/ton=ounces per ton 

For air 

ng/m3=nanograms per cubic metre

ju, g/ms=micrograms per cubic metre

g/ha=grams per hectare 

Conversion factors 

1 ng=l nanogram=0.000000001 gram

1 ju,g=l microgram=0.000001 gram

1 mg=l milligram=0.001 gram

1 ppb=l part per billion=0.000001 percent

1 ppm=l part per million=0.0001 percent 

1 part per thousand=0.1 percent

1 oz/ton=31 parts per million=0.0031 percent

1 g/metric ton (t)=l part per million=0.0001 percent

1 ha=l hectare= 1,000 square metres 

Symbols

>=greater than

<=less than

«« =approximately
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN WATER

By J. D. HEM

The concentration of dissolved lead in most natural 

water systems, which usually contain dissolved carbon 

dioxide and have a pH near 7, is very low commonly less 

than 10 /ig/1 partly because lead combines readily with 

carbonates, sulfates, and hydroxides normally present in 

such waters to form compounds of low solubility. Highly 

saline waters or strongly acid waters may contain 

appreciably higher concentrations of lead in solution, but 

such waters tend to be very restricted in distribution.

STABILITY FIELDS OF INORGANIC LEAD 

COMPOUNDS IN NATURAL WATER SYSTEMS

An outstanding characteristic of lead is its tendency to 

form compounds of low solubility with the major anions 

of natural water. The hydroxide, carbonate, sulfide, and 

more rarely, the sulfate of lead may act as solubility 

controls. Over most of the Eh-pH region, in which water is 

stable at 25°C and 1 atm (atmosphere) pressure, the 

divalent form, Pb+2, is the stable species of lead. The more 

oxidized solid PbO2, in which lead has a +4 charge, is 

stable only in a highly oxidizing environment; thus Pb +4 

probably has very little significance in controlling the 

behavior of lead in aqueous geochemical systems. If sulfur 

activity is very low, metallic lead can be a stable phase in 

alkaline or near-neutral reducing conditions in the 

presence of water.

Fields of stability for solid species of lead in the system 

Pb+H2O at 25°C are shown in figure 1. A dissolved activity 

of solute lead species of 10~8 '32 mol/1 (equivalent to 1 g/ 

1) was used to locate solid-solute boundaries. The stability 

fields of solids in the Eh-pH diagram would be enlarged at 

the expense of the areas of Pb+2 and Pb(OH)3~ if a higher 

dissolved lead activity were assumed.

The boundaries in figure 1 were calculated from 

thermodynamic data for lead assembled in table 1. The 

data were selected from published literature, mostly from 

the compilation of Wagman and others (1968). The range 

of published free energy values is rather large for some of 

the species of lead important in this study, and the choice 

of values can influence stability and solubility 

calculations substantially. Standard Gibbs free energy 

values compiled in the National Bureau of Standards 

Technical Notes (Wagman and others, 1968) should be

mutually compatible, but for a few of the lead species 

either no values are given or values in other publications 

appeared to be in better agreement with the consensus of 

published solubility information. Free energy values for 

PbS and PbCO3 in table 1 were taken from Robie and 

Waldbaum (1968) because they seemed to give solubilities 

nearer those reported by most investigators, as quoted by 

Sillen and Martell (1964).

No value for the hydroxy-carbonate solid or PbSO4 aq is 

given in either the compilation by Robie and Waldbaum 

or that of Wagman and others. The value given by 

Wagman and others for PbOH+ is not compatible with 

stability data for this complex given by Sillen and Martell 

(1964). The value chosen here is calculated from a stability 

constant published by Faucherre (1954), which agrees 

better with the considerable number of values for this ion 

determined by other investigators, even though it was 

calculated at 20°C rather than 25°C. The discrepancy 

introduced by this deviation from standard temperature is 

negligible. Faucherre's data were obtained for a solution 

of 0.06 ionic strength, and have been adjusted to zero ionic 

strength using the Debye-Hiickel equation. Faucherre's 

work also provided data for the polynuclear ion 

Pb4(OH)4 +4. Latimer's (1952) compilation of free energy 

data gave a value for Pb(OH)2c nearly 8 kcal less negative 

than the one given in table 1. The rather wide range in 

thermodynamic data adds a considerable factor of 

uncertainty to the solubility calculations.

The mixed oxide Pb3O4 c apparently is less stable than 

Pb(OH)2 c in the system specified for figure 1 and does not 

appear in the Eh-pH diagram. The Pb(OH)2 c value given 

in table 1 results in a large domain for this species in the 

Eh-pH diagram and almost eliminates the mixed hydroxy 

carbonate from consideration. The natural occurrence of 

this mineral, however, does suggest that the difference 

between the stabilities of mixtures of PbCO3 and Pb(OH)2 

and of the basic carbonate likely favors the basic carbonate. 

If the free energy value of Latimer is used for the basic 

carbonate, the species has a narrow stability field near pH 

8, and this field would be considerably enlarged if the 

carbon dioxide species concentration were assumed to be 

higher than the 10~3 mol/1 used in drawing the boundaries 

in figure 2.
LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

The system specified for figure 1 is highly simplified. 

To be more applicable to systems involving ordinary 

surface or underground water, the effects of dissolved 

carbon dioxide and sulfur species must be included. If a 

fixed total activity of dissolved carbon dioxide species and 

a fixed total activity of dissolved sulfur species are 

specified, stability fields of lead carbonate, sulfate, and 

sulfide can be shown. Figure 2 is an Eh-pH diagram for the 

system Pb-CO2-H2O-S at 25°C and 1 atm pressure. Total 

activities of dissolved CO2 and sulfur species are both 10-3 

molar. Areas of stability of solids and the solubility of lead 

are shown in figure 2. Table 2 gives equations used for the 

solubility calculations in that part of the diagram where 

Pb(OH) 2 c and carbonate or hydroxy carbonate are 

dominant.

As specified here, the activities of these dissolved carbon 

dioxide species do not necessarily involve a gas phase. 

Specifying a fixed partial pressure of carbon dioxide, as is 

sometimes done in solubility calculations of this type, 

tends to lead to a very high, probably unrealistic, concentration of carbonate in solution at the higher pH's.

From figure 2 it is evident that the solubility of lead is 

very low (less than 1 /xg/1) between pH 8.5 and 11, and is

FIGURE 1. Fields of stability for solids species (c; patterned) and 

dominant solute species in system Pb+H2O as functions of pH and 

redox potential. Dissolved lead activity 10~8-3Z mol/1 at 25°C and 1 

atm pressure.

TABLE 1. Standard Gibbs free energies of formation of lead species 

and related solutes.

[c, solid state; aq, dissolved]

Free energies 

AG°f(kcal/mol) Source of data

Pb+z aq -5.83 Wagman and others (1968).

PbOH+ aq -51.4 1 Calculated from Faucherre (1954).

Pb(OH)2 aq -95.8 Wagman and others (1968).

Pb(OH)3 - aq -137.6 Do.

Pb4(OH)4+4 aq -225.6 J Calculated from Faucherre (1954).

PbCl+ aq -39.39 Wagman and others (1968).

PbCI 2 aq -71.03 Do.

PbSO4 aq -187.38 Calculated from Kolthoff, Perlich, and

	Weiblen (1942).

PbOc -44.91 Wagman and others (1968).

PbOc 3 -45.16 Do.

Pb(OH)2 c -108.1 

PbS c -22.96 

PbCOs c -150.3 

Pb3(OH)2(C03) 2c-409.1 

PbSC-4 c -194.36

Do. 

Robie and Waldbaum (1968).

Do.

Latimer (1952). 

Wagman and others (1968).

PbO2 c 

Pb3O4 c 

H2O 4 

OH-aq 

H2Saq

-51.95 Do.

-143.7 Do.

-56.69 Do.

-37.59 Do.

-6.66 Do.

HS-aq

SCV2 aq

HSO4 - aq

H2COs aq

HCOs- aq

CO3 -2 aq

"At 20°C.

2Yellow.

'Red.

4Liquid.

2.88

-177.97

-180.69

-148.94

-140.26

-126.17

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

also low in all strongly reducing systems down to pH 2. 

However, between pH 6 and 8 the solubility of lead is a 

rather complex function of pH and total dissolved CO2 

and sulfur species. Lead can be relatively soluble in a 

dilute natural water below pH 6.5. In such a solution if the 

activity of dissolved CO2 species were lower than 10 ~3 

molar, the lead solubility would be greater than shown in 

the diagram. Some dilute river waters thus could be a 

favorable chemical environment for the solution of lead. 

Within the field of stability for PbSO4, the solubility of 

lead is a function of the total sulfate concentration. This 

control is most effective at rather low pH and when sulfate 

concentrations are high. The dissolved ion-pair PbSO4 aq 

is not a dominant form of dissolved lead unless sulfate 

activity exceed 10~2-62 mol/1. In a solution of this type 

ionic strength would be rather high, requiring a stoichiometric sulfate concentration of at least 500 mg/1 to 

produce the specified activity of SO4~2 ions. The PbSOaq 

complex does influence the solubility of lead shown in 

fugure 2, however, and was taken into account in locating 

the solubility lines. The solubility of lead is near 5 mg/1 in 

most of the PbSO4 c field; within this area solubility is 

constant above pH 2 because of the specified constant 

sulfur activity. Below pH 2 the lead solubility increases 

because some of the sulfate is converted to HSO4 ~ at very
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN WATER

FIGURE 2. Fields of stability for solids (c, patterned) and solubility 

of lead in system Pb+COz+S+H2O at 25°C and 1 atm pressure. Ionic 

strength 0.005.

low pH. Under reduced conditions the stable solid is 

galena, PbS, which has a very low solubility above pH 2.

The lead solubilities and regions of stability of solids 

shown in figures 1 and 2 are derived from theoretical 

chemistry, and certain variables are artificially fixed so 

that the results can be expressed on a two-dimensional 

graph. In effect, the defined systems retains only two 

degrees of freedom. Although some natural systems for 

example, ground water in a mineralogically homogeneous aquifer may have constraints enough to 

conform to a simple equilibrium model, the usual river or 

lake water is subject to changing conditions that increase 

the number of degrees of freedom, and a close conformance to equilibrium is unusual. However, the strong 

influence on lead solubility of the pH and alkalinity of the 

water may be reflected in analyses of river water, because 

the effect may be strong enough to be discerned even if 

equilibrium is not attained. Although available data are 

neither entirely reliable nor adequate in quantity, the best 

current information suggests that many surface waters in 

the United States carry concentrations of lead in solution 

whose values are close to those predicted from solubility 

calculations such as those represented in figure 2.

TABLE 2- Chemical equilibria and solubility equations for lead 

species in hydroxide and carbonate domains

Chemical equilibria

Equation Source of constant

[Pb+2][H+]-*

[PbOH+][H+][Pb+2 ]-1

[Pb(OH)2][H+]2[Pb+2 ]-1

[Pb(OH)3 -][H+]3 [Pb+2] -1

[Pb4.(OH)4+<][H+]<[Pb+*]-<

[Pb+z ][HCO3-][H+]-1

rpbso4irso4-zi~i[pb+z]-1

= 10 8 15 Calculated from data in table 1 .

= 10 -8 - 12 Do.

= 10-17 - 16 Do.

= 10-28-08 DO.

= 10 17 -95 Do.

= 10 -3 -09 Do.

= 10 2 -6z Do.

10 ~6 -35 Garrels and Christ (1965).

10-10-33 DO.

10 - 1 -47 Do.

Solubility equations

2CO2> diss.=

[PbOH+]4[Pb<(QH)4-M]

-ypb+2 TPb4(OH)4+4 

[PbSO4 ]

[Pb(OH>3-] f 

J+7Pb(OH)3 -

Obtaining the solubility of Pb(OH)2 c by the use of data 

in table 1 leads to elimination of stability regions for 

several lead oxides shown in similar diagrams published 

by others. The field for PbO2 is so small that it has very 

little significance, and it is not shown in figure 2. There 

are no areas of stability for the mixed valence oxide Pb3O4 

or for the anhydrous PbO species. The low solubility of 

lead shown on the diagram, however, is a function of both 

hydroxide and carbonate effects and is likely to be real.

The basic lead carbonate Pb3 (OH)2 (CO3 )2, because of 

the rather low COg concentration specified, has a small 

field of stability in the system defined in figure 2. However, 

there is only a small difference in free energy of formation 

between the actual double compound and a mixture of 

lead hydroxide and lead carbonate. The determination of 

which species might be formed in the vicinity of pH 8 by 

precipitation from a supersaturated solution could be 

mainly a matter of relative rates of reaction. Whether the 

stable solid is basic carbonate or a mixture of hydroxide 

and carbonate, the calculated equilibrium solubility of 

lead is essentially the same.

Other solids mentioned in the literature include 

hydroxy sulfates, nitrates, and chlorides of lead, none of 

which are stable in the system as defined. The solubility of 

lead phosphate is low enough to be a factor in some 

natural waters; generally, phosphate ionic species are not 

present in sufficient amounts in river and lake water to 

control the solubility of lead.

Other possibly significant solute species of lead have 

been described in the literature. The chloride complex 

PbCl+ will not be significant in solutions having less than 

about 1,000 mg/1 of chloride. It could be a significant
8 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

factor in saline water. A considerable amount of data has 

been obtained on polynuclear hydroxide complexes of 

lead such as Pb4(OH)4+ 4 and Pb3(OH4 +2 For the most part, 

such species have been studied in more concentrated 

solutions of lead than the upper limit represented in figure 

2. From the thermodynamic data it can be shown that 

polynuclear hydroxide species are not dominant factors in 

the aqueous chemistry of lead unless the concentration of 

lead is over 10 ~2 molar (Faucherre, 1954) and other 

complexing anions, such as sulfate and chloride are absent 

or in low concentrations. It seems reasonably certain that 

such conditions are rarely, if ever, attained in natural geochemical systems. Carbonate complexes such as PbCOs aq 

may be important in some waters but are not considered 

here.

EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE AND IONIC 

STRENGTH

Except as noted, all the thermodynamic data in tables 1 

and 2 are for a temperature of 25°C. This standard 

temperature is somewhat higher than that of most stream 

waters in the United States. At lower temperatures the 

solubilities of most minerals are somewhat decreased. 

However, the solubility of some carbonates increases as 

temperature declines. In a system having a CO2 gas phase, 

the solubility of CO2 also increases as temperature goes 

down and the dissociation reactions are affected.

Strictly speaking, solubility calculations made for 25°C 

are applicable only to systems at that temperature. If one is 

interested in testing a solution for adherence to 

equilibrium solubility at some other temperature, for 

example, at 5°, all the measurements on the system that 

would be affected by temperature should be made at 5°, 

and the results compared with solubility calculations 

adjusted to apply at 5°. Approximate temperature 

corrections for equilibrium constants can be made using 

standard chemical thermodynamic relationships. The 

alkalinity and pH measurements are seldom all made at 

the field temperature, however. Converting such values to 

ones that would represent some other temperature is not a 

simple matter.

Alkaline-earth metal carbonates decrease in solubility as 

temperature increases. The effect of temperature on 

solubility of lead carbonate does not appear to have been 

closely studied. A few stability constants quoted by Sillen 

andMartell(1964,p. 140,141) suggest the solubility of lead 

carbonate may decrease with decreasing temperature, but 

temperature effects do not appear to be large. It does not 

seem worthwhile to calculate the solubility of lead at 

temperatures below 25° until more study has been given. 

However, the effect is probably not very large between 25° 

and 0°C, when compared to other factors that influence 

field application of solubility calculations.

Solutions of high ionic strength may retain substantially more lead in solution than do more dilute

waters. Ion pairing effects also become increasingly 

important at high ionic strength. The calculations given 

here do not apply to solutions whose total dissolved-solids 

concentration is much above 5,000 mg/1.

INORGANIC CONTROLS OF LEAD SOLUBILITY

As noted earlier in this discussion, lead forms carbonate, 

sulfate, sulfide, hydroxide compounds of low solubility. It 

is possible to show by equilibrium solubility calculations 

(fig. 2) that the concentration of lead species in solution 

should be less than 10 ju.g/1 at ordinary Earth-surface 

temperatures when HCOs concentration is 61 mg/1 or 

more and pH is between 7.6 and 12.6. A great many natural 

surface and ground waters are in this concentration range. 

If the pH is constant and bicarbonate alkalinity is 

increased, the solubility is proportionately decreased 

throughout the pH range characteristic of most freshwater. Calculations described by Hem and Durum (1973) 

showed that many river waters in the United States have 

lead concentrations near the solubility limits imposed by 

their pH levels and contents of dissolved CC>2 species.

The comparison of observed lead concentrations with 

theoretically calculated ones can never be expected to give 

more than a very approximate indication of what is 

happening in river water. The influences of changing 

temperature and pH on solubility may be substantial. It is 

not unlikely that apparent supersaturation could occur, 

perhaps as the result of kinetic barriers to crystallization of 

small particles. Close adherence to a solubility model can 

be expected to be rare or nonexistent; however, some 

waters have a so much greater capacity for lead solution 

than others that even a crude model can be useful. 

Although many waters do not have sufficient contact with 

lead compounds to be able to attain saturation, the opportunity for such contact is particularly favorable in 

urbanized areas or wherever there is heavy automobile 

traffic and extensive utilization of leaded gasoline. In such 

areas, the rainfall itself, along with dry fallout of 

paniculate material from the atmosphere, can supply 

enough lead so that surface runoff reaching streams could 

contain substantial amounts enough to reach saturation at times.

Lazrus, Lorange, and Lodge (1970) calculated that as 

much as 138 g of lead is deposited by rainfall per month on 

each hectare (104 m2) in some parts of the northeastern 

United States. If the runoff in such an area is at a rate of 

about 50 cm of water annually (a commonly observed 

rate), the runoff would have to have an average lead 

concentration of 330/mg/l to remove lead at a rate of 138 g/ 

ha/mo. Higher or lower concentrations could be 

calculated for other areas and conditions. This figure for 

average concentration does indicate, however, that a large 

potential supply of lead is available for transport in 

runoff. Concentrations as high as 330 ju.g/1 could be stable 

in water having a pH near 6.5 and an alkalinity of about 25
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN WATER

mg/1 HCO3 . Water having these properties is common in 

runoff from areas in New York and New England. Thus, 

the potential for high lead concentrations in river and lake 

waters does exist in some places, and careful monitoring of 

river and ground water quality is desirable.

In some other areas the composition of runoff water will 

be less favorable for lead solution. In many places the 

average pH and alkalinity are so high that less than 1 /Ag 

of lead could be retained in solution at equilibrium.

The most comprehensive data on lead concentrations in 

river water of the United States are included in a report ,by 

Durum, Hem, and Heidel (1971). However, their compilation does not include either the bicarbonate or pH determinations needed to apply solubility calculations in 

testing for adherence to equilibrium conditions. Some of

the sampling sites were points at which pH and alkalinity 

measurements are regularly made, and some applicable 

measurements were found in the computer-stored data for 

water quality stations.

Of the 720 samples obtained for the Durum, Hem, and 

Heidel study, 70 could be correlated with applicable pH 

and alkalinity determinations that had been made either 

on a sample obtained the same day as the sample for lead, 

or on one obtained within a few days, if the composition of 

the source was relatively constant (as in large lakes, for 

example). Lead was detectable in 39 of these samples, as 

shown in table 3.

This table gives a calculated range of lead concentration for each sample, based on pH and alkalinity. The 

lower number is the solubility in a very dilute solution; the

TABLE 3. Observed and calculated saturation concentrations of lead in U.S. surface waters collected during October and November 1970

[Modified from Durum, Hem, and Heidel, 1971, and unpublished USGS records]

Sample source

Date sample collected

(Oct. 1970, 

except as noted)

2HCO,

(Mg/1)

ZHCO,

(log mol/1)

PH

Pb

Ug/l)

Calculated 

range

Observed

Raritan River near Manville, N.J........................................... 12 75 -2.85 7.5 5.0- 15.0

Millstone River near Manville, N.J........................................ 12 48 -3.09 7.4 12.0- 35.0

Manasquan River at Squankum, N.J..................................... 13 60 -2.96 7.1 18.0- 60.0

Delaware River at Trenton, N.J.............................................. 13 45 -3.12 7.7 4.0- 9.0

St. Johns River near Melbourne, Fla...................................... 14 113 -2.66 7.6 3.0- 9.0

St. Johns River at Jacksonville, Fla........................................ 2 103 -2.75 7.9 2.0- 5.0

Plantation Road Canal near Fort Lauderdale, Fla................. 29 167 -2.49 7.6 2.0- 6.0

Caloosahatchee River near Olga, Fla...................................... 29 199 -2.43 8.2 .6- 1.5

Peace River at Arcadia, Fla..................................................... Nov. 6, 1970 51 -3.05 7.9 3.0- 10.0

Phillipi Creek at Sarasota, Fla................................................ 6 158 -2.56 8.0 1.2- 3.0

Alifia River at Lithia, Fla....................................................... 7 42 -3.09 7.2 15.0- 50.0

Swift Creek at Facil, Fla.......................................................... 6 15 -3.42 6.7 150.0- 400.0

Ochlockonee River near Havana, Fla..................................... 15 32 -3.21 7.1 25.0- 80.0

Coosa River at Childersburg, Ala........................................... 14 77 -2.83 7.4 5.0- 20.0

Alabama River at Claiborne, Ala............................................ 9 50 -3.06 7.5 9.0- 25.0

Sipsey Fork near Grayson, Ala................................................ 22 38 -3.05 6.8 40.0- 150.0

Mahoning River, Ohio-Pennsylvania boundary..................... 8 88 -2.85 7.3 8.0- 25.0

Cataloochee Creek near Cataloochee, N.C.............................. 13 9 -3.53 7.2 40.0- 100.0

Tennessee River at Kentucky Dam, Ky. (near Paducah)........ 16 66 -2.90 7.5 6.0- 18.0

Washington Creek at Windigo, Mich..................................... 15 68 -2.87 7.4 6.5- 20.0

St. Marys River, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.................................. 12 50 -3.04 7.7 5.0- 12.0

St. Clair River at Port Huron, Mich....................................... 19 95 -2.79 8.3 1.0- 4.0

Detroit River at Detroit, Mich................................................. 16 98 -2.78 8.2 1.5- 4.5

Missouri River at St. Joseph, Mo............................................ 14 186 -2.45 8.0 .9- 2.5

Mississippi River at East St. Louis, 111................................... 13 229 -2.39 8.0 .8- 2.5

North Sylamore Creek near Fifty Six, Ark.............................. 30 146 -2.54 7.3 4.0- 12.0

Arkansas River below Little Rock, Ark.................................. 7 100 -2.72 7.6 3.5- 10.0

Kiamichi River near Big Cedar, Okla..................................... 6 10 -3.74 7.9 20.0- 60.0

Las Vegas Wash near Boulder City, Nev................................ Nov. 19, 1970 258 -2.33 8.0 .8- 2.0

Santa Ana River below Prado Dam, Calif.............................. 8 318 -2.40 8.2 .5- 1.2

Merced River, Happy Isles Branch, Yosemite, Calif.............. 20 9 -3.76 7.1 100.0-300.0

Elder Creek near Branscomb, Calif......................................... 7 75 -2.80 7.5 4.5- 12.0

North Fork Quinault River, near Amanda Park, Wash......... 15 44 -3.08 7.4 10.0- 30.0

South Fork Coeur d'Alene River near Smelterville, Idaho..... 8 7 -3.24 5.8 1000.0-5000.0

Hayden Creek near Hayden Lake, Idaho................................ 21 47 -3.07 7.7 5.0- 15.0

Snake River near Shelley, Idaho............................................. 6 150 -2.57 8.2 .8- 2.0

Rock Creek near Twin Falls, Idaho........................................ 19 335 -2.24 7.8 1.0- 3.0

Campbell Creek near Spenard, Alaska.................................... 16 48 -3.06 7.9 5.0- 10.0

Ship Creek near Anchorage, Alaska........................................ 16 59 -2.90 7.9 5.0- 15.0

6

1

20

4

2

6

5

4

5

7

10

11

84

2

34

2

2

2

5

3

3

2

2

1
10 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

higher represents the effect of increased ionic strength. 

Temperature effects are not directly recorded, but will 

generally have the effect of slightly decreasing the 

solubility of carbonates as temperature decreases. Most 

samples probably were 10°~15° cooler than the standard 

25°C used in the calculations. The influence of temperature on lead solubility in these systems needs more 

investigation.

Of the 39 concentrations of lead determined, 12 are 

within the predicted solubility range and an additional 10 

are reasonably close (within a factor of 2) to upper or lower 

limits.

The possible experimental and sampling errors are 

probably enough to explain these discrepancies. The 

remaining 17 samples include 15 that are well below 

saturation, a condition to be expected in a high percentage of the samples, owing to lack of sufficient opportunity to dissolve lead. There were only two samples in 

which a substantial degree of supersaturation 

occurred one from the Mississippi River at East St. 

Louis, which was sampled during a high stage and may 

have been carrying colloidal particulate lead that could 

pass through the filter used in clarifying the sample, and 

the other from the Santa Ana River below Prado Dam, in 

the Los Angeles area of California, where lead fallout rates 

are probably very high, causing a situation also conducive to accumulation of colloidal particulate lead.

The principal value of these solubility calculations is in 

the aid they give to understanding the freshwater part of 

the geochemical cycle of lead and in the suggestion that 

hazards of increased lead in water supplies may be most 

severe in areas where runoff has both a relatively low 

dissolved-solids concentration and a low pH. It is not 

intended to imply that the equilibrium aspects of lead 

chemistry are the only important ones. Factors not considered here may be operating to prevent high lead concentrations from being reached in solutions that are below 

saturation. However, until more evidence is obtained that 

such factors are preventing lead from appearing in runoff, 

it seems obvious that lead concentrations in river and lake 

water require close attention.

NONSOLUTE LEAD IN WATER

A significant fraction of the total content of lead carried 

by river water may be in an undissolved state. This 

nonsolute lead can consist of colloidal particles in a 

hydrosolic suspension, a characteristic form of many 

metals having sparingly soluble hydroxides. It may also be 

present as larger undissolved particles of lead carbonate, 

oxide, hydroxide, or other lead compound, and can be 

incorporated in other components of the particulate lead 

of the runoff, either as sorbed ions or as surface coatings on 

sediment mineral particles. It can also be carried as a part 

of organic suspended matter in both living and nonliving 

forms.

The concentrations of lead usually reported represent 

an arbitrarily defined solute fraction, separated from the 

nonsolute fraction by filtration. Most filtration 

techniques cannot be relied upon to remove all colloidalsize particles, and on acidification of the filtered sample, as 

usually is done for preservation before analysis, the 

colloidal material that passed through is dissolved and is 

reported in jhat form. Usually the solids removed from a 

surface water sample by filtration are not analyzed for lead. 

Exceptions are the analyses reported for rivers in the USSR 

by Konovalov, Ivanova, and Kolesnikov (1968), for which 

the only determinations of lead were on material removed 

by filtration. Their assumption appears to have been that 

solute lead was insignificant. Samples of ground water are 

not generally filtered before analysis. Content of colloidal 

material in such waters is probably negligible, however, 

owing to natural filtration effects during recharge and 

movement through the aquifer.

Even the lead in rainfall can be mainly particulate. 

Samples of rain were collected at the U.S. Geological 

Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., during the period 

January-April 1971. Filtration through membranes with 

0.10- jam-diameter pores removed as much as 90 percent of 

the lead. Several samples of runoff from a small stream 

draining part of the city of Palo Alto, Calif., were collected 

during this period. One of these contained 90 ju.g/1 of lead, 

about 90 percent of which could be removed by filtration. 

The sediment contained 0.11 percent lead.

Kopp and Kroner (1970, p. 14) reported lead in only 5 of 

228 samples of suspended material obtained from 

composited river and lake samples. In one of these, 

however, the concentration was equivalent to 120 jig/1 in 

the original composite.

Dry atmospheric fallout of lead was measured during 

May and June of 1971 at Menlo Park, Calif. These 

measurements were made by exposing, for 1-2 weeks on 

the building roof, a large shallow polyethylene container 

in which distilled water was maintained at a depth of a few 

centimetres. The water and sediment accumulated were 

then analyzed for dissolved and particulate lead. This 

particulate fallout consistently contained 0.09 to about 

0.10 percent of lead, and the fallout rate of lead ranged 

from 30 to 66 g/ha/mo. No measurable amount of rain fell 

during this period. Rates and composition of fallout 

obtained in this set of observations are similar to those 

reported earlier by Chow and Earl (1970) for the San 

Diego, Calif., area.

Before a meaningful estimate can be made of the 

effectiveness of runoff in transporting lead away from 

areas where it has been deposited by atmospheric fallout 

and rain, it will be necessary to obtain more information 

on the amounts of lead transported in nonsolute form, 

especially during periods when runoff rates are high, as 

well as corresponding information on the amount carried 

in solution. At present such data are almost totally
INORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN WATER 11

nonexistent. A laboratory study of sorption of lead by 

cation exchange (Hem, 1976) indicated that a major part of 

the lead in stream water may be adsorbed on suspended 

sediment.

REFERENCES CITED

Chow, T. J., and Earl, J. L., 1970, Lead aerosols in the atmosphere 

Increasing concentrations: Science, v. 169, p. 577-580.

Durum, W. H., Hem, J. D., and Heidel, S. G., 1971, Reconnaissance 

of selected minor elements in surface waters of the United States, 

October 1970: U.S. Geol. Survey Circ. 643, 49 p.

Faucherre, Jacques, 1954, Sur la constitution des ions basiques 

metalliques 2, Le plomb: Soc. Chim. France Bull., v. 21, p. 

128-142.

Garrels, R. M., and Christ, C. L., 1965, Solutions, minerals and equilibria: New York, Harper & Row, 450 p.

Hem, J. D., 1976, Geochemical controls on lead concentration in 

stream water and sediments: Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, v. 

40 (in press).

Hem, J. D., and Durum, W. H., 1973, Solubility and occurrence of 

lead in surface water: Am. Water Works Assoc. Jour., v. 65, no. 

8, p. 562-568.

Kolthoff, I. M., Perlich, R. W., and Weiblen, D., 1942, Solubility of 

lead sulfate and lead oxalate in various media: Jour. Phys. Chemistry, v. 46, p. 561.

Konovalov, G. S., Ivanova, A. A., and Kolesnikov, T. Kh., 1968, Dispersed and rare elements dissolved in the water and contained 

in the suspended matter of the main rivers of the U.S.S.R., in 

Geochemistry of sedimentary rocks and ores [in Russian]: Moscow 

Izdatel'stvo Nauka, 435 p.

Kopp, J. F., and Kroner, R. C., 1970, Trace metals in waters of the 

United States A five year summary of trace metals in rivers and 

lakes of the United States (Oct. 1, 1962-Sept. 30, 1967): U.S. Dept. 

Interior, Federal Water Pollution Control Admin., 29 p. and app.

Latimer, W. M., 1952, The oxidation states of the elements and their 

potentials in aqueous solutions [2d ed.]: New York, Prentice-Hall, 

392 p.

Lazrus, A. L., Lorange, Elizabeth, and Lodge, J. P., Jr., 1970, Lead 

and other metal ions in United States precipitation: Environmental Sci. and Technology, v. 44, p. 55-58.

Robie, R. A., and Waldbaum, D. R., 1968, Thermodynamic properties 

of minerals and related substances at 298.15°K (25.0°C) and one 

atmosphere (1.013 bars) pressure and at high temperatures: U.S. 

Geol. Survey Bull. 1259, 256 p.

Sillen, L. G., and Martell, A. E., 1964, Stability constants of metalion complexes [2d ed.]: London Chem. Soc. Spec. Pub. 17, 754 p.

Wagman, D. D., Evans, W. H., Parker, V. B., Halow, I., Bailey, S. 

M., and Schumm, R. H., 1968, Selected values of chemical thermodynamic properties: U.S. Natl. Bur. Standards Tech. Note 

270-3, p. 187-195.

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN NATURAL WATER SYSTEMS

By R. L. WERSHAW

Natural soil-water and sediment-water systems are 

extremely complex, consisting of a myriad of interacting 

organic and inorganic components. In this section we 

shall be concerned with the interaction of one of the 

inorganic components, lead, with the organic 

components of these systems.

The organic components of a soil-water system are an 

extremely diverse group of compounds (Saxby, 1969), 

including carbohydrates, amino acids, phenolic and 

quinonic compounds, organic acids, nucleic acids, 

enzymes, porphyrins and other heterocyclic compounds, 

lipids, terpinoids, and humic materials. (See Saxby, 1969; 

Spakhov and Spakhova, 1970; Greaves and Wilson, 1969; 

Kowalenko and McKercher, 1971; Ivarson and Sowden, 

1969; and Kononova, 1966, for more complete discussions 

of the organic compounds in soils.)

In addition to the natural organic compounds present 

in soil, streams and lakes contain organic sediments and 

suspended solids that have been derived from municipal, 

agricultural, and industrial wastes. These wastes are made 

up of carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes, 

lipids, and many of the other organic compounds of living 

systems. Oils, plasticizers, polymers, and an enormous 

number of other organic compounds are discharged to 

natural waterways by manufacturing and chemical 

industries.

The interaction of lead with the organic components of 

soil-water and sediment-water systems is still not well 

understood, but we shall review the work that has been 

done and attempt to draw what conclusions we can from 

the data available.

A number of studies have shown that the organic matter 

of soils and stream sediments apparently binds metals and 

reduces their mobility. However, as Mortensen (1963) has 

pointed out, although many workers have suggested that 

soil organic matter forms complexes with metals, and that 

these complexes are important in soil formation and plant 

nutrition, the evidence for existence of metal-soil organic 

matter complexes in nature is largely circumstantial.

Although a relatively large number of publications are 

available on the interaction of metals with organic 

materials of soils and waters (see Mortensen, 1963; Saxby, 

1969), very few of the papers have dealt with interactions of

lead and organic material, and of these, most have been 

concerned with lead in soil-water systems; there are very 

few on the interaction of lead with organic materials in 

streams and lakes.

SURFACE WATER-SEDIMENT SYSTEMS

Herrig (1969) and Hellman (1970a, b, 1971) have studied 

the heavy metals in the waters and sediments of the Rhine 

River and its tributaries. Herrig found that both inorganic 

and organic lead compounds were being introduced into 

rivers as industrial and municipal wastes; the most 

common of these were lead oxide, metallic lead, lead 

stearate, lead palmitate and tetraethyl lead. Much of this 

lead was concentrated in the suspended and bottom sediments of high organic content. The sediments were more 

effective in removing lead than in removing copper or zinc 

(Hellman, 1970a).

The sediments of the lower Rhine contained about 10 

times the amount of heavy metals found in those of the 

upper Rhine and its tributaries. Lead concentrations as 

high as 0.2 percent were found in some of the sediments; 

high heavy-metal concentrations in the sediments were 

associated with high concentrations in the river water. 

The high concentrations are orders of magnitude higher 

than the natural background levels and can only be due to 

municipal and industrial pollution. The high 

concentration of lead in sewage sludge indicates that 

municipal waste can be a major contributor of lead 

pollution in some streams (Gross, 1970). Even though the 

sediments remove large quantities of heavy metals from 

the water of rivers, they are still not efficient enough to 

totally decontaminate the water, and therefore the river 

water often contains high heavy-metal concentrations. 

Hellman (1970a) measured lead concentrations in the 

water as high as 85 ju,g/l, and the average for the length of 

the Rhine river was 51 ju,g/l.

The lead in the organic components of a sediment enters 

the sediment from two sources: (1) The plant and animal 

remains that provide the organic compounds to the 

sediment, and (2) the water that comes into contact with 

the sediment. The chelation of lead by the chemical 

components of living organisms tends to cause lead to 

accumulate in living tissue (MacLean and others, 1969;

13
14 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Danielson, 1970; Bryce-Smith, 1971). This accumulation 

of lead is no doubt a major source of lead in organic 

sediments. However, both the organic and inorganic 

components of sediments will also remove lead from 

water. Therefore, as has been pointed out by Hellman 

(1970a), organic sediments will tend to decontaminate 

surface waters contaminated with lead and other heavy 

metals. However, one must also remember that sediments 

will tend to supply lead to waters with low lead 

concentrations in order to maintain chemical 

equilibrium. Therefore, even if the lead pollution of a 

surface water were to cease immediately, the sediments 

would continue to supply lead to the water and to its fauna 

and flora.

CHEMISTRY OF THE INTERACTIONS

Saxby (1969) has reviewed the literature of metalorganic chemistry in the geochemical cycle. He found that 

lead has been detected in the carbonaceous fractions of 

soils, coals, petroleum, bituminous rocks and asphalts, 

shales, sedimentary sulfides, and phosphate rocks. In 

general, however, very little is known about the molecular 

associations of metals in geological materials. Therefore, 

in our discussion we shall have to draw heavily upon 

studies that have been made on synthetic organic systems 

and medically important biological systems; however, the 

general chemical principles elucidated in these studies 

should also hold true for natural soil-water systems.

Two different types of organic lead compounds may be 

found in nature: (1) the so-called organo-lead compounds, 

in which the lead is covalently bonded to carbon atoms 

and the metal complexes, and (2) chelates, in which the 

lead is ionically bonded to organic ligands.

Lead normally exhibits both divalent and tetravalent 

states in organic compounds. When lead is covalently 

bonded to carbon it is generally more stable in the 

tetravalent state; relatively stable divalent lead derivatives 

are known, however. (See Shapiro and Frey, 1968, for a 

more complete discussion of lead bonding in organic 

compounds.)

Covalently bonded organo-lead compounds in natural 

systems undergo slow oxidation by air and photolysis 

when exposed to light. Most of these compounds except 

those in which the lead-carbon bonds are highly polar, 

such as the perfluoroalkyl lead compounds and R3PbX 

and R?PbX compounds in which X is an anion, are not 

hydrolyzed by water. In coordination compounds, such as 

metal complexes and chelates, ionic lead is normally 

divalent; however, organo-lead cations in which the lead is 

tetravalent may also be complexed by organic ligands.

Most of the detailed studies on the complexing of lead 

and other metals by organic ligands have been conducted 

by biochemists on the components of living systems; the 

same ligands however are present in the organic material 

of soils, natural waters, and sewage effluents.

Lead is generally most strongly bound to sulfur 

containing ligands and to phosphoryl groups (Passow,

1970), but it also forms coordination bonds with other 

ligands.

Vallee and Wacker (1970) have reviewed the chemistry 

of metalloproteins andhavepointed out that lead interacts 

with proteins and enzymes by binding to carboxyl groups 

or sulfhydryl groups. The binding of lead and other heavy 

metals to a wide variety of enzymes inhibits the activity of 

the enzymes (Morrow and others, 1969; Hernberg and 

Nikkanen, 1970; Vallee and Wacker, 1970). Li and 

Manning (1955) have demonstrated that, in general, lead 

forms more stable complexes with proteins than do 

cadmium, zinc, or copper.

The binding of lead to enzymes and the consequent 

inhibition of enzymatic activity will undoubtably affect 

the biological reactions that take place in streams, soils, 

and sewage treatment facilities, but unfortunately there 

are very few data on the interactions of lead with soil and 

water biochemical systems. However, the poisoning of 

enzyme systems in natural waters by heavy metals can be 

expected to drastically alter the rates of decomposition of 

organic wastes in these systems.

Heavy-metal cations may not always act as enzyme 

poisons in soil systems. Ladd and Butler (1970) have 

shown that divalent cations are effective in reducing the 

inhibition of the enzyme protease by humic acid. It 

appears that the humic acid binds to the enzyme, thereby 

preventing it from combining with substrate. If metal 

cations are present in the system, active sites on the humic 

acid will apparently preferentially bind to the cations and 

be unavailable for binding the enzyme. Lead also interacts 

with polynucleotides and viruses. Lead ions will cause the 

depolymerization of some polynucleotides such as 

ribonucleic acid (RNA) (Farkas, 1968) and 

deoxyribonucleic acid (Eichhorn, 1962; Izatt and others,

1971). In the depolymerization of RNA it appears that the 

lead binds the phosphate groups. This neutralizes the 

charge on the phosphate groups and renders the phosphodiester bonds more susceptible to hydrolysis by 

hydroxyl groups (Farkas, 1968). In the binding of lead to 

tobacco mosaic virus molecules the lead may displace 

protons of the hydroxyl groups (Fraenkel-Conrat, 1965). 

In a amino acids, in more complex molecules containing a amino acids, and in molecules similar to 8- 

hydroxyquinoline and quinoline acid, lead and many 

other metals form five-membered chelate rings with 

reactive ligands. Charles and Freiser (1952), in their work 

on five-membered chelate rings, have measured the 

stability constants of lead chelates of o-aminophenol and 

o-aminobenzenethiol. Their data indicate that the order of 

decreasing stability for metal o-aminophenol is as follows: 

Cu, Ni, Zn, Co, Pb; for o-aminobenzenethiol, however, the 

order is Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Co. Lead forms more stable 

complexes with o-aminobenzenethiol than with o-
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN WATER 15

aminophenol, apparently because the lead-sulfur bond is 

stronger than the lead-oxygen bond.

Other groups of compounds such as carbohydrates, 

carboxylic acids, lipids, phenols, and oxygenated 

isoprenoids that have electron donor ligands similar to 

those of the proteins mentioned above would also be 

expected to complex lead. In this regard Hoogeveen (1970) 

has demonstrated that lead is bound by phospholipids. 

Martin, Ervin, and Shepherd (1966) and Martin and 

Richards (1969) have shown that copper, zinc, iron, and 

aluminum form complexes with soil polysaccharides. 

These metal-polysaccharide complexes are generally more 

resistant to decomposition in soils than are uncomplexed 

polysaccharides. Although there are no experimental data 

on lead-polysaccharide complexes in soil, one would 

expect them to have properties similar to those of other 

heavy-metal polysaccharide complexes.

It is well established that soil humic materials such as 

humic acid and fulvic acid form complexes with metals 

(Kononova, 1966). Aleksandrova (1967) has classified the 

interactions of metals with humic materials into three 

categories: (1) Formation of heteropolar salts (an ion 

exchange phenomenon between strong bases and humic 

materials), (2) formation of coordination complexes, (3) 

formation of adsorption complexes with nonsilicate 

sesquioxides (adsorption of humus on sesquioxide gels). 

Most of the interactions of lead with humic materials that 

have been studied fall under the second category.

Humic acids and fulvic acids form stable complexes 

with lead (II) ions and other metal ions; these complexes 

may be separated from a mixture of humic acid or fulvic 

acid metal complexes by gel permeation chromatography 

(Miicke and Kleist, 1965; Klocking and Miicke, 1969). 

Therefore, it should be possible to isolate intact, humicmetal complexes from soils and sediments.

Bondarenko (1968) found that the presence of fulvic acid 

in water increased the rate of solution of lead sulfide 10-60 

times over a water solution at the same pH that did not 

contain fulvic acid. At pH values near 7, soluble leadfulvic acid complexes were present in solution; at initial 

pH values between 7.4 and about 9, the lead-fulvic 

complexes partially decomposed, and lead hydroxide and 

carbonate were precipitated. At initial pH values of about 

10, the amount of lead-fulvic acid complexes again 

increased. Bondarenko (1968) attributed this increase to 

dissociation of phenolic groups at high pH values, a 

phenomenon which increases the complexing capacity of 

the fulvic acid.

In addition to interactions in which a lead ion is bound 

by a single organic molecule, a single metal ion can be 

bound by two different organic molecules. It has been 

demonstrated, for example, that polyvalent cations act as 

bridges between clay minerals and humic and fulvic acids 

(Greenland, 1971).

SUMMARY AND CONCULSIONS

The complexing of lead by most of the common sulfur-, 

phosphorus-, oxygen- and nitrogen-containing ligands 

means that lead will accumulate in both the living and 

nonliving organic components of soil-water and 

sediment-water systems. The living and non-living 

organic components are not independent of each other, 

but are constantly interacting, as the living components 

metabolize the nonliving components of the system and 

then die, contributing their remains to the pool of nonliving compounds in the system. Some of the lower forms 

of life are consumed in the process by the higher forms of 

life and in this way chemical elements from the sediments 

are introduced into the food chain of the system; this food 

chain often ends with man. The fate of heavy metals in this 

process has not been elucidated; however, the sediment in 

a contaminated surface-water body will serve as a large 

reservoir which can provide lead and other metals to the 

biota of the system even after heavy metal pollutants have 

ceased to be introduced into the system. Unfortunately, in 

the case of heavy metals, much more attention has been 

paid to heavy metals dissolved in the water phase of surface 

water than to the complexed metals in the sediment phase 

which, in general, probably contain a considerably higher 

amount of metals than the water. The sediments will also 

act as a reservoir for providing dissolved heavy metals to 

the water when contamination levels are low.

High concentrations of lead in soils and sediments will 

have a marked effect upon enzyme systems, acting in some 

instances to reduce inhibition by other components of the 

systems. The alteration of the activity of some of the most 

basic components of living systems is certain to have a 

profound effect upon the biological and chemical processes taking place in natural systems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work could not have been completed without the 

diligent efforts of Miss Sarah Booker who did most of the 

literature search.

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deoxyribonucleic acid structure: Nature, v. 194, p. 474-475.
16 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Farkas, W. R., 1968, Depolymerization of ribonucleic acid by plumbous ion: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, v. 155, p. 401-409.

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Schwebstoffen des Rheinseine Untersuchung zur Entgiftung des 

Rheinwassers (ein Nachtrag) [Absorption of heavy metals by suspended solids in the Rhine River]: Deutsche Gewasserkundliche 

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basis of their trace metal content]: Deutsche Gewasserkundliche 

Mitteilungen, v. 14, no. 6, p. 160-164; English abs. available in 

Chem. Abs., v. 73, no. 115626d, 1971. 

.1971, Bestimmung von Metallen in Flusschlammen mit Hilfe

der Rontgenfluorescenz Bedeutung fur die Praxis [Determination of metals in river sludge by X-ray fluorescence 

Application in actual practice]: Zeitschr. Anal. Chemie, v. 254, 

no. 3, p. 192-195; English abs. available in Chem. Abs., v. 74, 

no. 146178p, 1971.

Hernberg, Sven, and Nikkanen, J., 1970, Enzyme inhibition by lead 

under normal urban conditions: The Lancet, v. I, no. 7637, p. 

63-64.

Herrig, Hans, 1969, Untersuchen an flusswasser inhaltsstofen [River 

water substances]: Gas- und Wasserfach, Wasser-Abwasser, v. 110, 

no. 50, p. 1385-1391; English abs. available in Chem. Abs., v. 

72, no. 35556z, 1970.

Hoogeveen, J. Th:, 1970, Thermoconductometric investigation of 

phosphatidylcholine in aqueous tertiary butanol in the absence 

and presence of metal ions, in Maniloff, Jack, Coleman, J. R., 

and Miller, M. W., eds., Effects of metals on cells, subcellular 

elements, and macromolecules [Rochester Conf. on Toxicity, 2d, 

1969, Proc.]: Springfield 111., Charles C. Thomas Pub., p. 207-229.

Ivarson, K. C., and Sowden, F. J., 1969, Free amino acid composition 

of the plant root environment under field conditions: Canadian 

Jour. Soil Sci., v. 49, p. 121-127.

Izatt, R. M., Christensen, J. J., and Rytting, J. H., 1971, Sites and 

thermodynamic quantities associated with proton and metal ion 

interaction with ribonucleic acid, and their constituent bases, 

nucleosides, and nucleotides: Chem. Rev., v. 71, no. 5, p. 439-481.

Klocking, Renate, and Mucke, Dietrich, 1969, Isolierung wasserloslicher Huminsauren (Fulvosauren) aus ihren Blei, (II 

Chelatverbindungen [Isolation of water soluble humic acids

(fulvic acids) from their lead, (2) Chelates]: Zeitschr. Chemie, 

v. 12, p. 453-454; English abs. available in Chem. Abs., v. 72, 

no. 66020z, 1970.

Kononova, M. M., 1966, Soil organic matter Its nature, its role in 

soil formation and in soil fertility [2d English ed.: translated from 

Russian by T. Z. Nowakowski and A. C. D. Newman]: London, 

Pergamon Press, 544 p.

Kowalenko, C. G., and McKercher, R. B., 1971, Phospholipid components extracted from Saskatchewan soils: Canadian Jour. Soil 

Sci., v. 51, p. 19-22.

Ladd, J. N., and Butler, J. H. A., 1970, The effect of inorganic cations 

on the inhibition and stimulation of protease activity by soil 

humic acids: Soil Biology and Biochemistry [Oxford], v. 2, p. 

33-40.

Li, N. C., and Manning, R. A., 1955, Some metal complexes of 

sulfur-containing amino acids: Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., v. 77, no. 

20, p. 5225-5228.

MacLean, A. J., Halstead, R. L., and Finn, B. J., 1969, Extractability of added lead in soils and its concentration in plants: 

Canadian Jour. Soil Sci., v. 49, p. 327-334.

Martin, J. P., Ervin, J. O., and Shepherd, R. A., 1966, Decomposition 

of the iron, aluminum, zinc, and copper salts or complexes of 

some microbial and plant polysaccharides in soil. Soil Sci. Soc. 

America Proc., v. 30, p. 196-200.

Martin, J. P., and Richards, S. J., 1969, Influence of the copper, zinc, 

iron, and aluminum salts of some microbial and plant polysaccharides on aggregation and hydraulic conductivity of Ramona 

sandy loam: Soil Sci. Soc. America Proc., v. 33, p. 421-423.

Morrow, J. J., Urata, G., and Goldberg, A., 1969, The effect of lead 

and ferrous and ferric iron on o-aminolevulic acid synthetase: 

Clin. Sci. [London], v. 37, p. 533-538.

Mortensen, J. L., 1963, Complexing of metals by soil organic matter: 

Soil Sci. Soc. America Proc., v. 27, p. 179-186.

Mucke, Dietrich, and Kleist, Horst, 1965, Papierelektrophoretsche 

untersuchungen an Huminsaure-metallverbindungen [Paper 

electrophoresis of metal-humic acid compounds]: Albrecht-ThaerArchiv, v. 9, no. 4, p. 327-336; English abs. available in Chem. 

Abs., v. 63, no. 9097a, 1965.

Passow, Hermann, 1970, The red blood cell Penetration, distribution, 

and toxic actions of heavy metals, in Maniloff, Jack, Coleman, 

J. R., and Miller, M. W., eds., Effects of metals on cells, subcellular elements, and macromolecules [Rochester Conf. on Toxicity, 2d, 1969, Proc.]: Springfield, 111., Charles C. Thomas, p. 

291-340.

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Rev. Pure and Appl. Chemistry, v. 19, June, p. 131-149.

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lead: New York, Interscience, 486 p.

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water-soluble organic compounds in the rhizosphere of some tree 

species: Soviet Soil Sci., v. 2, no. 6, p. 703-710.

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Neurath, Hans, ed., The proteins Composition, structure and 

function: New York, Academic Press, 192 p.
DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL LEAD DEPOSITS IN THE CONTINENTAL

UNITED STATES

By A. V. HEYL

The principal lead deposits in the continental United 

States are shown in figure 3. Most of the deposits and 

depositional districts are located within a few major 

tectonic and geographic regions of the United States. They 

are, from east to west, (1) the Appalachian foldbelt (Blue 

Ridge, Ridge and Valley, and Piedmont provinces) 

extending from Maine to Alabama; (2) several low domed 

uplifts within the little-disturbed craton of the greater 

Mississippi Valley (Central Lowland); (3) the Ouachita 

Mountains foldbelt (Ozark Plateaus) of Arkansas and 

Oklahoma; (4) the Rocky Mountains belt from Mexico 

and western Texas northward to western Wyoming and 

eastern Idaho (Middle and Southern Rocky Mountains); 

(5) the cordillera, which includes the Basin and Range 

province of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, western Utah, 

southeastern California, and southern Idaho, as well as the 

Sierra Nevada, Oregon Plateaus (Columbia Plateaus), 

Northern Rocky Mountains, and Cascade Mountains, and 

the main mountain ranges of Alaska (Pacific Mountain 

System); and (6) the Pacific foldbelt (Pacific Border 

province), which forms a narrow band in western 

California.

The deposits in the Mississippi Valley region (Central 

Lowland and Ozark Plateaus), Rocky Mountain belt 

(Northern and Southern Rocky Mountains provinces), 

and the cordillera (Basin and Range province) are the 

largest in the United States and have produced most of the 

commercial lead during the history of the United States. It 

is worthy of note, however, that the actual areas of lead 

deposits in these three regions are so small that even if all 

are taken into account they probably would not markedly 

increase the total crustal abundance of lead within these 

three regions. The deposits outside of these three regions 

are locally numerous, but they have not been major 

commercial sources of lead.

Lead is commonly associated with zinc and silver, and 

less commonly with gold, copper, fluorine, barium, 

cadmium, antimony, bismuth, and arsenic. In most 

districts lead is subordinate to zinc in total tonnage. The 

most notable exception is the southeastern Missouri 

district where lead is far more abundant than zinc (fig. 3,

loc. 1). This district has been our major source of lead since 

the 1870's.

Most of the major districts in Utah also have more 

abundant lead than zinc and silver has been a major 

byproduct. Likewise, in the Coeur d'Alene district of 

northern Idaho (fig. 3, loc. 3), which dominates lead 

production in the West, total lead production also exceeds 

that of zinc; this district is also the major source of silver in 

the United States.

Silver is associated with lead in most deposits in the 

western States, the quantity ranging from a minor 

byproduct to a major value of the ore. Many of the lead 

deposits mined in the foldbelts of the southern Rocky 

Mountains and in the Basin and Range region of the 

cordillera during the 19th and early 20th centuries were 

oxidized silver-enriched deposits worked mainly for their 

silver content.

The deposits in the Appalachian foldbelt (Blue Ridge, 

Piedmont, and Ridge and Valley provinces) are mainly 

zinc or copper-zinc deposits with relatively minor lead. A 

few of the largest deposits, such as the most productive zinc 

deposits in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, and east 

Tennessee, are almost free of lead. A few deposits, such as 

those at Edwards and Balmat, N.Y. (fig. 3, loc. 5), Blue 

Hill, Maine, and Austinville, Va. (fig. 3, loc. 6), contain 

enough lead to provide a commercial byproduct. 

Hundreds of other small deposits that contain lead are 

known throughout the Appalachian foldbelt.

The deposits in the Ouachita Mountain belt (Ozark 

Plateaus province) have also produced mainly zinc in the 

past, and lead is locally only abundant enough to provide 

a minor byproduct.

The cordillera and Rocky Mountain belt (Basin and 

Range and Southern Rocky Mountains provinces) contain 

many silver-bearing lead and lead-zinc deposits, and local 

concentrations of deposits are widely scattered throughout 

these regions. In the southern Rocky Mountains they are 

most abundant in the Colorado mineral belt (fig. 3, loc. 9), 

the San Juan Mountains, Colo. (fig. 3, loc. 10), and the 

Wasatch Range, northern Utah. In the cordillera, deposits 

are scattered throughout the Basin and Range and the

17
INTERIOR

LOW AND

APPALACHIAN

PLATEAUS

SOUTHERN

ROCKYMOUNTAINS

BLUE RIDGE, 

PIEDMONT, AND 

ENGLAND 

PROVINCES OZARK

["PLATEAUS

EXPLANATION

Boundary of physiographic 

provinces

Principal lead districts 

Numbers refer to list of

districts in text page.-

/COASTALs

f

i I, (i I I SI A N A (

\2£S "INTER MOUNTAIN 

^ US, PLATEAUS

OO

FIGURE 3. Lead deposits in the United States that have produced or are known to contain more than 100,000 tons of lead. Districts or areas are listed in order of decreasing lead

content. Compiled by A. V. Heyl, 1973.

1. Southeast Missouri

2. Upper Mississippi Valley (Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa)3. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho4. Austinville-Ivanhoe, Va.

5. Balmat-Edwards, N.Y.

6. The massive sulfide deposits of the Piedmont 

region, Virginia.

7. Illinois-Kentucky district

8. Tri-State district, Missouri, Oklahoma, and 

Kansas

9. Leadville, Red Cliff, Aspen, and other districts,

Colorado mineral belt 

10 San Juan Mountains region, Colorado

11. Northport, Deep Creek, and Metaline districts, 

northeast Washington

12. Barker, Neihart, Butte, Bryant, and Colorado 

districts, western Montana

13. Magdalena district, New Mexico

14. Central, Hanover, and nearby districts, New 

Mexico

15. Bisbee district, Arizona16. Harshaw and nearby districts, Arizona 17. Mammoth and nearby districts, Arizona18. Yellow Pine, Nevada, and nearby Resting Springs and Kingston Range districts, California

19. Darwin and nearby districts in Inyo County, 

Calif.

20. Pioche and nearby districts, Nevada 21. White Pine and Eureka districts, Nevada

22. San Francisco and Star districts, Utah23. The Tintic and nearby districts, Utah

24. Park City and Cottonwbod region, Utah 25. West Mountain, Bingham, Rush Valley, and 

Ophir districts, Utah

26. Warm Springs, Bayhorse, Alder Creek, and 

Wood River districts, Idaho

27. Big Bug and nearby districts, Arizona28. Ground Hog, Glacier Bay, and Tracy districts, 

Alaska

29. Kugruk River, Alaska
PRINCIPAL LEAD DEPOSITS IN THE UNITED STATES 19

Northern Rocky Mountains provinces, but the greatest 

concentrations are in northern Idaho and adjacent eastern 

Washington. Similarly the wide cordillera belt that 

extends northward and westward through Alaska (Pacific 

Mountain System) contains most of the lead deposits 

known in that State.

Very few important lead-bearing deposits occur in the 

part of the Pacific foldbelt within the conterminous

United States (Cascade and Pacific Border province), 

although potentially important deposits are common in 

the Alaskan part of the Pacific foldbelt (Pacific Mountain 

System). Zinc deposits containing some lead occur on 

Santa Catalina Island and in other parts of southern 

California, in the Shasta copper district in northern 

California, and in Lane County, Oreg.

MIGRATION OF LEAD DURING OXIDATION AND 

WEATHERING OF LEAD DEPOSITS

By LYMAN C. HUFF

Lead deposits, like deposits of other ore metals, 

commonly are surrounded by a zone in which the earth 

materials are enriched with the ore metal. During the 

oxidation and weathering of lead ore, some lead becomes 

incorporated in the soil, stream sediment, drainage waters, 

and plants. This dispersion of lead has been studied in 

detail around many lead deposits because it serves as a 

useful means of prospecting (Hawkes and Webb, 1962). 

Such studies show that some earth materials and plants 

near ore deposits may contain highly anomalous concentrations of lead and that such anomalous concentrations 

may extend outward from the ore deposits. These geochemical halos are an important factor in evaluating the 

lead content of our environment.

The lead content of most lead ores averages about 8 

percent whereas the lead content of unmineralized rock is 

only about 15 ppm. This high contrast (about 5,000:1) 

indicates that, during weathering and erosion, the lead 

from the ore can be disseminated in earth materials in 

anomalous amounts throughout an area that is quite large 

by comparison with the original ore deposits. We will 

consider here the effects of supergene processes upon 

primary lead deposits and identify, insofar as they can be 

determined, the most important means of lead dispersal.

WEATHERING OF LEAD ORE

Geologic study has provided much information on the 

behavior of lead during oxidation and weathering of lead 

deposits. The predominant lead mineral in the primary 

ore is the sulfide, galena. During weathering, galena is 

slowly oxidized by atmospheric oxygen to either the 

sulfate (anglesite) or the carbonate (cerussite), as indicated 

by the following equations:

PbS+202 '

Galena

PbS+CO2+H2O+202 -

Galena

Anglesite

-»-PbCO3+H2SO4

Cerussite

Cerussite usually is formed at a pH above 6 and anglesite at 

a pH below 6 (Garrels, 1960, p. 170-171). Where pyrite is 

present, Fe +s in solution may facilitate oxidation of the 

galena. The CO2 required in the formation of cerussite is 

provided by the carbon dioxide content of soil gas or, in

many instances, by the carbonate content of nearby 

limestones. Part of the lead may also be incorporated in 

clay minerals or in iron oxide coatings of complex 

composition. If the primary ore is rich in pyrite, a large 

part of the lead may become incorporated in the ironoxide-rich gossans which characterize the weathered 

outcrops of such deposits.

The common supergene lead minerals are quite 

insoluble in natural waters. In weathered ore, darkcolored fragments of galena commonly are coated with a 

light-colored layer of anglesite or cerussite, showing the 

process of oxidation in progress. These oxidation 

products of lead do not leach away in soil moisture, but 

remain in the weathered rock. Many lead deposits have a 

high content of zinc, which oxidizes to soluble products 

that do leach away from the weathered ore. The behavior 

of lead during weathering thus contrasts sharply with that 

of zinc, sulfur, and other soluble oxidation components of 

the original ore. The lead content of weathered lead ore 

commonly is just as high as that of the original 

unweathered ore.

In the lead mining district of southwestern Wisconsin, 

residual concentrations of weathered galena fragments 

were found over some of the lead veins (Huff, 1952). These 

residual concentrations were left by the decomposition 

and mechanical washing away of the lighter minerals. As 

these residual concentrations had a high lead content and 

were easy to mine, they formed an important source of ore 

during the early development of this district. Such residual 

concentrations of lead are not common, but they do show 

the characteristic insolubility and limited leaching of lead 

minerals during weathering.

LEAD IN SOILS NEAR ORE DEPOSITS

As the weathered outcrops of lead deposits contain a 

large amount of lead, it might be suspected that soils on or 

near such deposits also would have a high lead content. 

Study in many places has shown this to be true. Some 

representative data (table 4) show that lead contents of 

1,000 to 10,000 ppm are common in soils near outcrops of 

lead deposits.

21
22 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 4. Range of copper, lead, and zinc content of soils collected near ore veins

[Veins are classified in order of decreasing grade as C, commercial; SC, subcommercial; and M, mineralized (Huff, 1952, p. 536)]

Classification Copper Lead Zinc

Vein

High Low High/low High Low High/low High Low High/low 

(ppm) (ppm) ratio (ppm) (ppm) ratio (ppm) (ppm) ratio

Unnamed vein, Porters Grove Range, Iowa County, Wis................

Iron King vein, Yavapai County, Ariz............................ ..................

Collins East vein, Mammoth St. Anthony mine, Final

County, Ariz...................................................................................

Unnamed copper vein, Pima County, Ariz.......................................

Apache vein, Gila County, Ariz........................................................

Pittsburgh vein, Coeur d'Alene district, Shoshone County, Idaho:

Upper traverse.............................................................................

Lower traverse.............................................................................

Chicago vein, Blackbird district, Lemhi County, Idaho..................

Malachite vein, Jefferson County, Colo:

West traverse...............................................................................

East traverse................................................................................

Union Copper veins, Gold Hill district, Cabarrus County, N.C.....

SC

SC

C

M

M

C

C

C

SC

M

SC

720

930

1,600

5,300

400

720

180

170

220

50

50

150

4

5

7

106

8

5

4,400

7,000

4,500

220

12,000

13,000

2,500

110

200

430

15

70

130

150

44

35

10

14

170

100

17

2,600

5,500

580

1,800

500

680

400

520

200

230

80

220

6

11

3

8

5

3

Most supergene lead minerals are soft and disintegrate 

mechanically during weathering, so that much of the lead 

probably is concentrated in the fine-size fraction of the 

soil. Most geochemical exploration studies of soil are 

based upon analysis of a fine-size fraction, such as the 

minus-80-mesh fraction. These studies yield high lead 

values, indicating concentrations in the fines. Few 

analyses of all size fractions of soil have been made, 

however, and so little data are available on the relative 

concentration of lead in the various size fractions.

The dispersion of lead in residual soil is demonstrated 

effectively by study of soil samples collected near lead-rich 

veins (Huff, 1952). Soil samples collected across a lead-zinc 

vein in Wisconsin (fig. 4) show maximum lead content 

immediately over the vein. Soil on the hillside above the 

vein contains background amounts of lead. On the hillside 

below the vein, the lead content of the soil gradually 

decreases away from the vein through dilution as the soil 

creeps downhill. The distribution of zinc in the soil is 

somewhat different than that of lead. Probably this 

difference is caused by partial dispersion of zinc by 

solution in soil moisture, whereas the dispersion of lead is 

almost completely mechanical.

Some of the ore metals show a marked tendency to leach 

from the surface or A horizon of residual soils and to 

concentrate in the lower or B horizon, so that the B horizon 

attains a higher metal content than the A. Such leaching 

and redeposition has been recognized for zinc and copper 

but not for lead. Wherever such comparisons have been 

made the A horizon contains as much or more lead than 

does the B (see Keith, 1969, table 1).

In the southwestern Wisconsin lead-zinc district 

residual soil derived from lead deposits is overlain by a 

silty layer of eolian loess. This loess is believed to be 

largely of Pleistocene age. Although the loess has been in 

contact with lead-rich residual soil for thousands of years, 

study shows that there has been little, if any, diffusion of 

lead in solution from the lead-rich soil into the loess

DISTANCE ALONG TRAVERSE, IN FEET 

0 100 200 300 400

FIGURE 4. Relationship between unnamed vein and geochemical anomaly in residual soil, Porters Grove 

Range, Iowa County, Wis. From Huff (1952, p. 524).

(Kennedy, 1956, p. 187-223). Similar studies made where 

glacial till overlies lead ore show little or no diffusion of 

lead in solution upward into the glacial till.

Surface soils may contain highly anomalous amounts of 

lead for 5 miles (8 km) or more from a major source of 

contamination such as a lead smelter. (Canney, 1959). In 

Yugoslavia, near a lead smelter which has operated for 

centuries, as much as 24,000 ppm lead has been measured 

in contaminated soil (Djuric and others, 1972). These high
MIGRATION OF LEAD DURING OXIDATION AND WEATHERING 23

concentrations result from airborne dust particles rich in 

lead which have been incorporated in the soil. The 

minimal leaching rate of lead from soils indicates that 

most of the lead added to surface soils from contaminating 

sources will remain in these soils indefinitely.

LEAD IN STREAM SEDIMENTS

In most mining districts the lead which creeps downhill 

in soils eventually is transported to creeks, or washes, 

where it is incorporated by running water into stream 

sediments.

Geochemical exploration studies show that stream 

sediments containing anomalous amounts of lead from 

mineralized areas can be traced downstream several miles 

from the source of the lead. It is assumed that the lead in 

such sediments, like that in soils, is mostly concentrated in 

the fine particles. Here again few analyses have been made 

of different size fractions to determine the extent of concentration in the fine particles.

Several studies of panning concentrates indicate that 

lead may also be concentrated in part in heavy minerals. In 

one area in New Mexico the heavy minerals containing 

lead have been identified (Griffitts and Alminas, 1968, p. 8) 

as fragments of limonite and wulfenite. Anglesite and 

cerussite are too soft to survive stream transportation as 

sand grains and are rarely found in heavy-mineral 

concentrates.

Reconnaissance mineral exploration of many large 

areas has been accomplished by sampling stream 

sediments and by analyzing these samples for lead as well 

as for other ore metals. A good example is a study in New 

Brunswick (Boyle and others, 1966). Stream-sediment 

samples commonly contain less than 100 ppm of lead (in 

the minus-80-mesh-size fraction); near known lead 

deposits they may contain more than 5,000 ppm of lead. 

Representative data for stream sediments collected by the 

author near Tombstone, Ariz., are given in table 5.

TABLE 5. Ore-metal content of stream-sediment samples (minus 80- 

mesh) collected in and downstream from the Tombstone district, 

Arizona

[N.a., not analyzed]

Sampl

No

1 

33

3 

2 

32

18

7

e Sample locality

Tombstone Gulch: 

Near town and rich mines...... 

0.5 mi (0.8 km) downstream

0.7 mi (1.1 km) downstream

1.9 mi (3.0 km) downstream

2.6 mi (4.2 km) downstream 

from Sample 1 and 0.4 mi 

(0.6 km) above Walnut 

Creek....................................

Walnut Creek: 

0.8 mi (1.3 km) below mouth

1.4 mi (2.2 km) below mouth

Metal content (ppm)

Lead

4,500 

5,000 

5,500 

850

550

118 

90

Zinc

4,300 

7,000 

6,000 

720

460

130 

83

Silver

26.0 

33.0 

46.0 

9.1

4.1

N.a. 

1.3

Molybdenum

120 

30 

16

4

<4

N.a. 

<4

Copper

175 

300 

500 

80

30

30

N.a.

LEAD IN MINE DRAINAGE

Measurable amounts of lead are rarely detected in either 

mine waters or drainage from mines. Representative data 

obtained near lead and zinc deposits in New Brunswick 

indicate a lead content of as much as 3,300 ppm in stream 

sediments but less than 0.001 ppm in stream waters. The 

water sample with the highest lead content, 2 ppm, was 

collected within a mine (Boyle and others, 1966, p. 24). In 

the same waters, the zinc content is as much as 1,000 ppm. 

The contrast shows the relative insolubility of lead. These 

results and other available data indicate that during 

weathering and erosion, little if any lead is removed in 

solution from lead deposits.

PLANTS

Plants growing in lead-rich soil absorb some lead from 

the soil. Later, when the plants die and decay, this lead is 

returned to the soil. The renowned geochemist V. M. 

Goldschmidt, after his chemical studies of coal ashes 

(1937), theorized that lead, as well as many other trace 

elements present in soil, tends to be absorbed by plants and 

plant humus. Thus, wherever soils are rich in lead, the 

plants also are likely to be rich in lead.

The extent to which plants accumulate lead from the 

soil (Webb and Millman, 1951; Worthington, 1955; and 

Malyuga, 1964) can be judged by the lead content of plants 

growing near areas of lead mineralization. Some studies 

have indicated an anomalous lead content in some plants 

but not in others (Cannon, 1960, table 3). Relative 

amounts of lead accumulated by various species can be 

evaluated by comparing the lead content of plant ash 

(which contains nearly all the inorganic constituents) 

with the lead content of the soil in which the plants are 

growing. Table 6 gives data of this type for three areas.

In most of these areas the lead content of plants is higher 

than that of the soil in the nonmineralized areas and lower 

than that of the soil in the mineralized area. In other 

words, the plants show less accumulation of lead from 

lead-rich soils. The reasons for this relationship between 

soils and plants with respect to lead is not completely 

understood. However, it does indicate that the ability of 

plants to accumulate lead from soils is limited.

Data given in another section of this report indicate 

considerable differences among plant species in ability to 

accumulate lead. Considering the large number of plant 

species, it is quite possible that some common plants 

which have never been investigated accumulate large 

amounts of lead. The mineralized areas, with high lead 

content in their soils, provide excellent environments to 

study the lead content of common, non-agricultural plant 

species. Because of the current interest in lead dispersion, 

additional studies of common plants in mineralized areas 

seem desirable to identify all species which accumulate 

lead.
24 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 6. Mean lead contents of plants compared with mean lead

contents of associated soils in both nonmineralized and mineralized

areas 

[Data from the Mississippi Valley district from Keith (1969, p. 353-356); data from Alaska

from Shacklette (1960, p. B102-B103); data from the Tombstone district collected by

the author]

Lead (ppm)

Nonmineralized area Mineralized area

Upper Mississippi Valley

Soils: 

Residual, A horizon...................

Plant ash:

Oak, stems..................................

......... 18

......... 102

119

......... 150

124

78

135

99

Mahoney Creek lead-zinc deposit, Alaska

Soils..............................................

Ash of all plant species sampled.

20

90

1,300

160

Tombstone district, Arizona

Soils:

Alluvial..............

Plant ash:

Mesquite, stems.

35

53

3,905

239

CONCLUSIONS

The supergene dispersal of lead, unlike that of some 

other ore metals, takes place mostly by mechanical 

processes. Chemical changes are involved in weathering 

but the weathered products are relatively insoluble and are 

not leached from the rock by soil moisture. These soft 

insoluble lead minerals are incorporated in the fine-size 

fractions of the soil and stream sediments. They are 

dispersed by gravity and can be traced in ever-diminishing 

concentrations a long distance from their source.

The low solubility of the supergene lead minerals limits 

the amount of lead which dissolves in mine waters or is 

accumulated by plants. Available data on the lead content 

of mine waters indicate that it is normally very low. Some 

plants accumulate lead from lead-rich soil near ore 

deposits; this accumulation varies according to species 

and may amount to several hundred parts per million in 

the ash of some species. However, as shown elsewhere in

this report, high concentrations in plants have also been 

observed near lead smelters and near highways where 

plants absorb lead from industrial and automobile 

exhaust fumes.

REFERENCES CITED

Boyle, R. W., Tupper, W. M., Lynch, J., Friedrich, G., Ziauddin, M., 

Shafiqullah, M., Carter, M., Bygrave, K., 1966, Geochemistry of 

Pb, Zn, Cu, As, Sb, Mo, Sn, W, Ag, Ni, Co, Cr, Ba, and Mn 

in the waters and stream sediments of the Bathhurst-Jacquet River 

district, New Brunswick: Canada Geol. Survey Paper 65-42, 50 p.

Canney, F. C., 1959, Geochemical study of soil contamination in the 

Coeur d'Alene district, Shoshone County, Idaho: Mining Eng., 

v. 11, no. 2, p. 205-210.

Cannon, H. L., 1960, Botanical prospecting for ore deposits: Science, 

v. 132, no. 3427, p. 591-598.

Djuric, DuSan, Kerin, Zarka, Graovac-Leposavic, Ljubica, Novak, 

Ljiljana, and Kop, Marija, 1972, Environmental contamination 

by lead from a mine and smelter: Archives Environmental Health, 

v. 23, no. 4, p. 275-279.

Garrels, R. M., 1960, Mineral equilibria At low temperature and 

pressure: New York, Harper and Bros., 254 p.

Goldschmidt, V. M., 1937, The principles of distribution of chemical 

elements in minerals and rocks [7th Hugo Miller Lecture]: Chem. 

Soc. Proc. [London], Jan.-June [1937], p. 655-673.

Griffitts, W. R., and Alminas, H. V., 1968, Geochemical evidence for 

possible concealed mineral deposits near the Monticello Box, 

northern Sierra Cuchillo, Socorro County, New Mexico: U.S. 

Geol Survey Circ. 600, 13 p.

Hawkes, H. E., and Webb, J. S., 1962, Geochemistry in mineral exploration: New York, Harper and Row, 415 p.

Huff, L. C., 1952, Abnormal copper, lead, and zinc content of soil 

near metalliferous veins: Econ. Geology, v. 47, no. 5, p. 517-542.

Keith, J. R., 1969, Relationships of lead and zinc contents of trees 

and soils, Upper Mississippi Valley district: Soc. Mining Eng. 

Trans., v. 244, no. 3, p. 353-356.

Kennedy, V. C., 1956, Geochemical studies in the southwestern Wisconsin zinc-lead area: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1000-E, p. 187-223.

Malyuga, D. P., 1964, Biogeochemical methods of prospecting: New 

York, Consultants Bur., 205 p.

Shacklette, H. T., 1960, Soil and plant relationships at the Mahoney 

Creek lead-zinc deposit, Revillagigedo Island, Southeastern 

Alaska, in Short papers in the geological sciences: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 400-B, p. B102-B104.

Webb, J. S., and Millman, A. P., 1951, Heavy metals in vegetation 

as a guide to ore A biogeochemical reconnaissance in west Africa: 

Inst. Mining and Metallurgy Trans., v. 60, pt. 2, [no.] 537, p. 

473-504.

Worthington, J. E., 1955, Biogeochemical prospecting at the Shawangunk Mine [N.Y.] A case study: Econ. Geology, v. 50, no. 4, 

p. 420-429.
LEAD IN IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 

AND IN THEIR ROCK-FORMING MINERALS

By MICHAEL FLEISCHER

LEAD IN IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS

Most of the recent estimates of the lead content of 

igneous and metamorphic rocks (table 7) are based 

principally on the spectrographic analyses by Wedepohl 

(1956). Since the publication of his work, several hundred 

determinations by a variety of methods have been 

published. These are summarized in table 8 and are shown 

graphically for selected rock types in figure 5, in which the 

rocks analyzed have been classified under the names given 

by the respective authors. The data are in good general 

agreement with the averages previously proposed by 

Wedepohl and other researchers. It will be noted that the 

median values are generally slightly lower than the arithmetic averages, a consequence of the inclusion of a few 

very high determinations; thus, it is believed that the 

median value is generally more meaningful than the 

arithmetic average.

The data indicate that, within the probable error of the 

averages, the lead contents of plutonic rocks are generally 

about the same as those of their volcanic equivalents (table

TABLE 7. Published estimates of lead contents of igneous and metamorphic rocks

Rock Type Lead (ppm)

Silicic rocks (granite, rhyolite). 

Granite......................................

Granite, high Ca.......................

Granite, low Ca........................

Granodiorite..............................

^0.0 

220.0 

3 15.0 

3 19.0 

2 15.0

Intermediate rocks (diorite, andesite). 

Quartz diorite......................................

Diorite.................................................

Alkalic rocks.......

Ultramafic rocks.

Rhyolite and obsidian 

Dacite..........................

Basalt and gabbro........

2 8.0

2 10.0

2 3 12.0

2 3.0 

» .1

3 1.0

221.0

2 11.0

2 6.0

1 8.0

3 6.0

'Vinogradov(1956, 1962).

"Wedepohl (1956).

'Turekian and Wedepohl (1961).

8), granites correspond to rhyolites, diorites to andesites, 

and alkalic rocks to trachytes and phonolites.

The lead contents increase with increasing silica 

content and, in general, with content of potassium, but 

even within a single pluton or igneous complex correlations such as Pb/K, Pb/Rb, and Pb/Ba show wide variations. It is very doubtful that these ratios are useful as a tool 

for correlation. They are even less useful as a basis for 

prediction of lead contents. A few typical examples from 

recent papers for the variation of the Ba/Pb ratio are listed 

in table 9.

The average lead content for gneiss in table 8 is slightly 

lower than that for granitic rocks, but there are not 

sufficient data to permit drawing any conclusions as to 

whether lead is gained or lost during metamorphism, 

except to say that metasomatic reactions leading to the 

development of K-feldspar result in increased lead content. 

Milovskiy and Matveyeva (1970) studied three instances of 

granitization and found increases of average lead content 

in two, where lead increased from 13 to 30 ppm and from 8 

to 18 ppm; in a third example the lead content remained 

constant at 40 ppm Pb.

The distribution of analyses for granite, granodiorite, 

basalt, and gneiss is shown in figure 5.

LEAD IN ROCK-FORMING MINERALS OF 

IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS

From consideration of the ionic radii of the rockforming elements of igneous rocks (values are from those 

of Whittaker and Muntus, 1970, for coordination number 

6), one would expect lead (Pb*2, 0.126 nanometres) to be 

concentrated in minerals of potassium (K , 0.146 nm), 

such as K-feldspars, biotite, and muscovite, and to occur to 

a lesser degree in minerals of calcium (Ca +2,0.108nm)and 

sodium (Na+ , 0.108 nm). In igneous rocks one would also 

expect very close geochemical coherence between lead and 

barium (Ba +2, 0.144 nm) and between lead and strontium 

(Sr+2, 0.121 nm), and fair coherence of lead with rubidium 

(Rb + , 0.157 nm).

In reality, however, although there is a general 

parallelism between the contents of lead and potassium,

25
26 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

40 50 60 

Pb, IN PARTS PER MILLION

70 80 90 100

FIGURE 5. Histograms of lead distribution in granite, granodiorite, basalt, and gneiss.
LEAD IN IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 27

TABLE 8. Summary of published analyses of lead content of igneous 

and metamorphic rocks.

[Leaders (...) indicate not determined]

Lead content (ppm)

Rock type

Number of Arithmetic

, Range Median analyses average

Granitic rocks ........................

Granodiorite, adamellite.. ......

Diorite, quartz diorite. ...........

Alkalic rocks ..........................

Ultramafic rocks ....................

Rhyolite, obsidian..................

Latite, quartz latite. ...............

Dacite, rhyodacite ..................

Andesite.... ..............................

Basalt, gabbro, diabase..........

Trachyte, phonolite ...............

Gneiss.....................................

Schist......................................

Amphibolite. ..........................

... 536

... 317

... 122

153

34

... 273

49

... 121

... 203

... 372

33

... 274

81

51

0-200

0- 80

0- 76

0-500

0- 37

0-200

0- 50

0-300

0-150

0-100

0- 60

0- 80

0-100

0- 50

25.0

22.0

14.0

22.0

2.0

21.0

25.0

12.0

12.0

7.5

18.0

20.0

15.0

11.0

18

16

11

16

18

21

11

8

4

16

12

15

9

both in igneous rocks and in the individual minerals of 

those rocks, examination in detail shows extremely wide 

and unsystematic variations in the K/Pb ratio. The same 

may be said of the relation between lead and rubidium 

contents; likewise, the ratios of lead to barium and lead to 

strontium vary over an extremely wide range and show no 

systematic relation to crystallization trends. 

In discussing this problem, Heier (1962 p. 426) stated,

Lead does not show any simple relation to any of the other elements 

substituting for potassium in K-feldspars. Because Pb +2 is both divalent 

and smaller thanK+ , it should be strongly captured according to classical 

distribution rules. However, the data * * * show that lead tends to be 

enriched in the most fractionated (pegmatite) K-feldspars. This 

contradiction to Goldschmidt's rule is related to the large electronegativity value of Pb+2, and the consequent increased covalent nature of 

the Pb-O bonds as compared to the K-O bonds.

DISTRIBUTION OF LEAD AMONG 

ROCK-FORMING MINERALS

Less than a dozen analyses have been published in 

which lead content has been determined for all the constituents of a given rock, and the material balances for these 

are not very good, presumably because of the low spectrographic sensitivity for lead. The few available analyses 

(Nockolds and Mitchell, 1948; Tauson and Kravchenko, 

1956; Zlobin and Gorshkova, 1961) all show that 70-95 

percent of the total, lead in the rocks is present in Kfeldspar plus plagioclase.

It should be noted that some of the accessory minerals of 

granitic rocks, especially those containing radioactive 

elements (for example, monazite, xenotime, uraninite, 

thorite, zircon, allanite, titanite), commonly contain far 

greater concentrations of lead than major rock-forming 

minerals; the contribution of accessory minerals to the 

total lead content of the rock, however, is generally small.

Because galena occurs in small amounts in many rocks, 

attempts have been made (Arnaudov and others, 1967;

TABLE 9. Range of variation of Ba/Pb ratio in igneous and metamorphic rocks

Rock type Range of Ba/Pb ratio Reference

Rhyolite: 

Pitchstone.

Pantellerite. 

Andesite..........

Do...............

Olivine basalt. 

Ankaramite.....

Dolerite...........

Granodiorite. 

Granite.........

Do.............

Gneiss...........

60-300 Carmichael and

	McDonald (1961).

4- 56 Gibson (1972).

20- 44 Peltz and others (1971).

30-153 Taylor and others (1969).

36-129 Cummings (1972).

75-360 Gunn and others (1970).

8- 35 Walker (1969).

17-210 Savu and others (1971).

23- 76 Do.

2- 90 Saha and others (1968).

7-132 Khaffagy (1971).

Arnaudov and Pavlova, 1971) to measure "sulfide lead" 

(by leaching with a solution containing 25 percent 

NaCl+0.5N HC1) and "sulfate lead" (by leaching with a 

solution containing 25 percent NaCl); these experiments 

show that in nearly all samples of feldspars and 

muscovites, 70-95 percent of the lead present is in the 

silicate molecule.

LEAD CONTENT OF ROCK-FORMING MINERALS

The feldspars, as stated previously, are the principal 

carriers of lead in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Their 

contents of lead vary widely from locality to locality, and 

even in different samples from a single locality, but 

general trends are evident from table 10 and figure 6, where 

data for orthoclase and microline are grouped together.

For rocks of granodiorite composition the content of 

lead is only slightly greater in K-feldspar than in 

coexisting plagioclase (indeed, a few analyses show more 

lead in the plagioclase), but the lead content of the 

plagioclase decreases with decreasing content of calcium. 

Consequently, the ratio of lead in K-feldspar to lead in 

plagioclase increases towards the granites proper and

TABLE 10. Lead content of feldspars

[Leaders (...) indicate not determined]

Rock type

Number

of 

analyses

Pb(ppm)

Range Average Median

K-feldspars (microcline and orthoclase)

Rhyolite, latite, quartz latite1 ...... 162 2- 115 47

Granitic rocks2 ............................. 344 0- 150 36 20

Granitic pegmatite3 ...................... 428 0- 560 72 30

Amazonite, granitic pegmatite.... 174 <5-13,500 477 200

Plagioclase

Rhyolite, latite, quartz latite ..... 

Granitic rocks2 ...........................

3 

.. 128

.. 90

13-14 

1-52

< 5-148

14 

13

46

14 

10

35

'These are mostly sanidine.

2Granite, granodiorite, adamellite, gneiss.

'Excluding amazonite.
28 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

K-feldspar from granitic pegmatite that 

excludes amazonite (428 samples)

K-feldspar from granitic pegmatite that 

includes amazonite (174 samples)

K-feldspar from granitic rocks (344 samples)

100 200 300

Plagioclasefrom pegmatite (90 samples)

400 500 600 700

Pb, IN PARTS PER MILLION

800 900 >950

FIGURE 6. Frequency of occurrence (percent of total samples) If lead in K-feldspar from granitic pegmatite that excludes 

amazonite, from granitic pegmatite that includes amazonite, and from granitic rocks, and in plagioclase from pegmatite.
LEAD IN IGNEOUS AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS 29

turther increases in the feldspars of granitic pegmatite. 

The K-feldspars of very late stages of granitic pegmatite 

(including the amazonite) show very high contents of lead, 

reaching maximum levels of 1.35 percent for amazonite 

(Alker, 1959) and 1.10 for green orthoclase (Cech and 

others, 1971).

Plots correlating lead content with Rb/Pb and Ba/Pb 

ratios show that these ratios tend to decrease as lead 

content increases, but the data scatter is so great that these 

ratios probably are not useful for correlation or prediction.

Data on other rock-forming minerals are assembled in 

table 11. Most of the data on muscovite are from Bradshaw 

(1967), who found significantly higher contents of lead in 

samples from granites associated with mineralization. 

The data of Parry and Nackowski (1963) and of Levering 

(1969, 1972) indicate that the lead content of biotites from 

mineralized granitic rocks is slightly higher than in those 

from unmineralized granitic rocks; it is possible, however, 

that some of the variation is due to regional differences not 

connected with processes of mineralization. The average 

for chlorites seems to be higher than would have been 

anticipated; it may reflect introduction of lead during 

hydrothermal alteration, but more work is clearly needed. 

The low contents in quartz, pyroxene, amphibole, garnet, 

and olivine are as expected.

Very little work has been done on the fate of lead in the 

weathering of igneous rocks. The data of Butler (1953, 

1954), however, indicate that most of the lead is taken up 

by minerals of the clay-size fraction.

SUMMARY

Averages for lead in the major types of igneous and 

metamorphic rocks as shown by recent analyses are in 

good agreement with the averages suggested by Wedepohl 

(1956). In the normal igneous or metamorphic rock series, 

the lead content increases with silica content and there is a 

rough correlation between contents of lead and potassium, 

but the variations are so great that ratios of lead to 

potassium, rubidium, or barium are not of much value for 

correlation or prediction. No distinct differences were 

noted between extrusive rocks and their intrusive 

equivalents.

The data do not clearly show whether lead is gained or 

lost during metamorphism, but indicate gain of lead 

during feldspathization or other types of potassiummetasomatism.

Most of the lead in igneous and metamorphic rocks is 

contained in feldspar; although some minor accessory 

minerals commonly contain more lead, their contribution to the total lead content of the rock is small. Latestage K-feldspars of granitic pegmatite usually have the 

highest lead content of the common rock-forming 

minerals. The lead content of the late micaceous minerals 

(muscovite, biotite, and chlorite) is generally lower than

TABLE 11. Lead content of other rock-forming minerals

Mineral and rock type

Muscovite: 

Granitic rocks:

Unmineralized1 ...........

Granite pegmatite..............

Schist...........................

Biotite: 

Granitic rocks .....................

Schist..................................

Pyroxenite. .........................

Biotite and phlogopite: 

Granite pegmatite..............

Chlorite3 ....................................,

Pyroxene.....................................

Number of 

analyses

55

99

21

8

2

KOK

17

73

1

11

3Q

31 <196

H7

21

9

Pb (ppm)

Range Average

4-100 

1-450 

9- 34 

<10- 77

( 2)

< 1-450 

<10- 50 

5-120 

None

no data 

7-220 

0- 50 

0- 59 

0- 34 

1- 46 

0- 6

21 

7 

18 

42 

10

29 

10 

20 

9

13 

64 

3 3 5

no

8 

2

'Granite, granodiorite, gneiss.

!Both analyses yielded 10 ppm.

'Nearly all from granitic rocks.

'Excluding two analyses of 216 and 343 ppm Pb.

'Excluding one analysis of 150 ppm Pb.

that of the feldspars, but higher than that of the other 

common rock-forming minerals. Micas from mineralized 

granitic rocks appear to contain slightly more lead than 

those from unmineralized rocks of similar composition.

REFERENCES CITED

Alker, Adolf, 1959, Ein Amazonit pegmatit bei Pack, Steiermark: Abh.

Mineralogie Landesmuseums Joanneum, Graz., 1959, p. 1-6. 

Arnaudov, V., and Pavlova, M., 1971, The presence of lead in some

mica-bearing pegmatites from southern Bulgaria [in Bulgarian,

with Russian and English summ.]: Bulgar. Akad. Nauk Geol.

Inst. Izv. Ser. Geokhim., Mineral., Petrog;, v. 20, p. 21-29. 

Arnaudov, V., Pavlova, M., and Petrusenko, Sv., 1967, Lead content

in certain amazonites [in Bulgarian, with Russian and English

summ.]: Bulgar. Akad. Nauk., Geol. Inst. Izv. Ser. Geokhim.,

Mineral., Petrog., v. 16, p. 41-44. 

Bradshaw, P. M. D., 1967, Distribution of selected elements in feldspar,

biotite, and muscovite from British granites in relation to

mineralization: Inst. Mining Metallurgy Trans., sec. B, v. 76,

[no.] 727, p. B137-B148. 

Butler, J. R., 1953, The geochemistry and mineralogy of rock

weathering 1, The Lizard area, Cornwall: Geochim. et Cosmochim Acta, v. 4, no. 4, p. 157-178. 

.1954, The geochemistry and mineralogy of rock weathering 

2, The Nordmarka area, Oslo: Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, 

v. 6, no. 5, p. 268-281.

Carmichael, lan, and McDonald, Alison, 1961, The geochemistry of 

some natural acid glasses from the north Atlantic Tertiary volcanic 

province: Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, v. 25, no. 3, p. 189-222.

Cech, F., Misar, Z., and Povondra, P., 1971, A green lead-containing 

orthoclase [with German summary]: Tschermaks Mineralog. U. 

Petrog. Mitt., v. 15, p. 213-231.

Cummings, David, 1972, Mafic and ultramafic inclusions, Crater 160, 

San Francisco volcanic field, Arizona, in Geological Survey research 1972: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 800-B, p. B95-B104.

Gibson, I. L., 1972, The chemistry and petrogenesis of a suite of 

pantellerites from the Ethiopian rift: Jour. Petrology, v. 13, no. 

1, p. 31-44.
30 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Gunn, B. M., Coy-Yll, Ramon, Watkins, N. D., Abranson, C. E., and 

Nougier, Jacques, 1970, Geochemistry of an oceanite-ankaramitebasalt suite from East Island, Crozet archipelago: Contr. Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 28, no. 4, p. 319-339.

Heier, K. S., 1962, Trace elements in feldspars A review: Norsk Geol. 

Tidsskr., v. 42, no. 2, p. 415-454.

Khaffagy, Mahmoud, 1971, Zur Geochemie der Spitzer Gneisse und 

der Paragesteinsserie des Kamptales, Niederosterreich: Verh. 

Geol. Bundesanstalt, 1971, no. 2, p. 171-192.

Lovering, T. G., 1969, Distribution of minor elements in samples of 

biotite from igneous rocks, in Geological Survey research 1969: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 650-B, p. B101-B106.

 1972, Distribution of minor elements in biotite samples from 

felsic intrusive rocks as a tool for correlation: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Bull. 1314-D, 29 p. [1971].

Milovskiy, A. V., and Matveyeva, S. S., 1970, Behavior of elements 

during the granitization of rocks [in Russian]: Geologiya Rudnykh 

Mestorozhd, 1970, no. 3, p. 3-22; translated in Internal. Geology 

Rev., v. 14, p. 623-638, 1972.

Nockolds, S. R., and Mitchell, R. L., 1948, The geochemistry of some 

Caledonian plutonic rocks A study in the relationship between 

the major and trace elements of igneous rocks and their minerals: 

Royal Soc. Edinburgh Trans. [1946], v. 61, pt. 2, p. 533-575.

Parry, W. T., and Nackowski, M. P., 1963, Copper, lead, and zinc 

in biotites from Basin and Range quartz monzonites: Econ. Geology, v. 58, p. 1126-1144.

Peltz, Sergiu, Vasiliu, Cecilia, and Udrescu, Constanta, 1971, Petrology of magmatites from the Neogene subvolcanic zone, East 

Carpathians [in Rumanian with French and English summaries]: 

Romania Com. Stat Geologiei Anuarul, v. 39, p. 177-256.

Saha, A. K., Sankaran, A. V., and Bhattacharyya, T. K., 1968, Traceelement distribution in the magmatic and metasomatic granites 

of Singhbhum region, eastern India: Neues Jahrb. Mineralogie 

Abh., v. 108, no. 3, p. 247-270.

Savu, Haralambie, Vasiliu, Cecilia, and Udrescu, Constanta, 1971, 

Petrologic and geochemical study of the synorogenic and late 

orogenic granitoids from the Susita pluton, south Carpathians 

[in Rumanian, with French and English summaries]: Romania 

Com. Stat Geologiei Anuarul, v. 39, p. 257-296.

Tauson, L. V., and Kravchenko, L. A., 1956, Characteristics of lead 

and zinc distribution in minerals of the Caledonian granitoid of 

the Susamyr batholith in central Tian-Shan [in Russian]: Geokhimiya, 1956, no. 1, p. 81-89; translated in Geochemistry, 1956, 

no. 1, p. 78-88.

Taylor, S. R., Capp, A. C., Graham, A. L., and Blake, D. H., 1969, 

Trace element abundances in andesites 2, Saipan, Bougainville, 

and Fiji: Contr. Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 23, no. 1, p. 1-26.

Turekian, K. K., and Wedepohl, K. H., 1961, Distribution of the elements in some major units of the Earth's crust: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., v. 72, p. 175-192.

Vinogradov, A. P., 1956, Regularity of distribution of chemical elements in the Earth's crust [in Russian]: Geokhimiya, 1956, no. 

1, p. 6-52; translated in Geochemistry, 1956, no. 1, p. 1-43.

____1962, Average contents of the chemical elements in the principal 

types of igneous rocks of the Earth's crust [in Russian with English 

summary]: Geokhimiya, 1962, no. 7, p. 555-571; translated in Geochemistry, 1962, no. 7, p. 641-664.

Walker, K. R., 1969, The Palisades sill, New Jersey A reinvestigation: 

Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 111, 178 p.

Wedepohl, K. H., 1956, Untersuchungen zur Geochemie des Bleis [with 

English summ.]: Geochim, et Cosmochim. Acta., v. 10, no. 1-2, 

p. 69-148.

Whittaker, E. J. W., and Muntus, R., 1970, Ionic radii for use in geochemistry: Geochim. et Cosmochim. Acta, v. 34, no. 9, p. 945-956.

Zlobin, B. I., and Gorshkova, M. S., 1961, Lead and zinc in alkalic 

rocks and their bearing on some petrologic problems [in Russian 

with English summary]: Geokhimiya, 1961, no. 4, p. 283-292; 

translated in Geochemistry, 1961, no. 4, p. 317-328.
ABUNDANCE OF LEAD IN SEDIMENTARY ROCKS, SEDIMENTS, AND

FOSSIL FUELS

By T. G. LOVERING

SEDIMENTARY ROCKS AND SEDIMENTS

Lead is present in very small amounts in the common 

sedimentary rocks. Analytical data from the U.S. 

Geological Survey's rock analysis storage system for more 

than 2,500 sedimentary rock samples from various parts of 

the United States show average lead concentrations of 

about 32 ppm for carbonaceous shale, 23 ppm for siltstone, 

mudstone, claystone, and noncarbonaceous shale, 17 ppm 

for sandstone, and 11 ppm for limestone and dolomite. For 

all these rock types, median values are lower than the 

averages (fig. 7), and even the carbonaceous shale, which 

has the highest average lead content, contains only about 1 

ounce of lead per ton (31 g/t) of average rock.

Comparable data on the lead content of these and other 

sedimentary rocks are found in the literature. Selected 

samples of carbonaceous shale from various formations in 

the Western United States contained from <10 to 70 ppm 

lead, with a median of 15 ppm (Davidson and Lakin, 1961, 

1962). Vine (1966) collected four sets of black shale samples 

from various parts of the country and found median values 

in them ranging from 10 to 30 ppm of lead, and Wedepohl 

(1971) obtained an average lead value of 23.8 ppm from 200 

bituminous shale samples taken from both the United 

States and Europe. Likewise, in an additional 73 samples 

of shale of Mesozoic to Holocene age, from Europe, Korea, 

Japan, the United States, and Trinidad, Wedepohl found 

an average of 23.8 ppm lead with a standard deviation of 15 

ppm. Tourtelot (1962, pi. 4) found that the lead con tent of 

samples of Pierre Shale taken from widely separated 

localities in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota 

showed a narrow range of from 7 to 30 ppm with a median 

at 15 ppm. Krauskopf (1955, p. 416) gave an average value 

for lead in shale of 20 ppm; Newman (1962, p. 425) 

estimated the average lead content of Triassic mudstones 

on the Colorado Plateau as 13 ppm, and Cadigan (1971, p. 

41-42) calculated a geometric mean of about 12 ppm lead 

for these rocks.

Published data on the lead content of normal sandstone 

are somewhat less abundant than those for shale and 

siltstone. Krauskopf (1955, p. 416) gave an average range of

10-40 ppm lead for sandstone. Wedepohl (1971, p. 241) 

found a mean value of 19.2 ppm lead in 45 Paleozoic and 

Mesozoic quartz sandstones from Germany. Lapchinskii 

and Lapchinskaya (1966, p. 123-127) reported an observed 

range of 16-52 ppm for lead in Carboniferous sandstone 

from Shebelinsk, Russia, and Razdorozhnyi (1966, p. 

203-206) obtained a modal value of 10 ppm lead from 

sandstone samples of similar age from the Donets Basin of 

Russia.

Our data on normal lead in carbonate rocks (limestone 

and dolomite) are comparable with the average abundance 

of 8±4 ppm estimated by Graf (1960, p. 71) and with the 

average of 9 ppm given by Wedepohl (1971, p. 241) for 124 

samples of European carbonate rocks.

Semiquantitative analyses of several hundred samples 

of phosphate rock from the Phosphoria Formation in 

Idaho (Sheldon and others, 1953; McKelvey and others, 

1953) suggest that the normal lead content of this rock 

ranges from 10 to 100 ppm and that many of the samples 

contain >100 ppm of lead, indicating a slightly greater 

concentration of lead in phosphate rock than in 

carbonaceous shale. Bauxite, on the other hand, appears to 

be more comparable to the carbonate rocks in its lead 

content; samples of Arkansas bauxite had an average 

content of 7 ppm and a maximum content of 70 ppm lead 

(Gordon and Murata, 1952). However, some published 

analyses of European phosphorites and bauxites suggest 

the reverse relationship in the relative concentrations of 

lead in these two rocks. Orekhov (1968) reported a 

maximum value of 30 ppm lead in samples of lower 

Tertiary phosphorites of the Rostov region in Russia. 

Maksimovic (1968) found a range of 16-155 ppm, with an 

average of 69 ppm lead, in 120 samples of bauxite from 

Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. Gybrgy (1957), however, gave 

lead concentrations in bauxite samples from western 

Hungary that are comparable to those reported for 

Arkansas bauxite.

The normal lead content of marine evaporite rocks 

appears to be even lower than that of the sedimentary 

carbonate rocks. Stewart (1963, p. Y33-Y39) presented

31
32 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

several analyses of these marine rocks and of the chloride 

and sulfate minerals of which they are composed. The 

highest lead value he gave is 5.4 ppm for a core sample of 

halite (NaCl); most of the halite samples, and also those of 

potash evaporites, contained less than 1 ppm of lead. The 

low lead content of potash evaporite sediments is 

somewhat surprising in view of the tendency for lead to 

concentrate in the potash feldspars of igneous rocks.

The presence of available lead in the marine 

environment is indicated by relatively high lead concentrations in samples of unconsolidated marine sediments. 

Turekian and Wedepohl (1961, p. 186) reported an average 

of 45 ppm lead in deep sea clay from the Atlantic and 110 

ppm in corresponding samples from the Pacific. Ericson, 

Ewing, Wollin, and Heezen (1961, p. 229-231) analyzed 

more than 100 argillaceous bottom sediments from the 

Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. These samples 

gave a median lead value of 60 ppm and a maximum of 240 

ppm. Riley and Skirrow (1965, p. 49) reported an average

45 

40 

-35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10

M

Sandstone 

(733 samples)

Noncarbonaceous siltstone 

and shale (677 samples)

M

10 20 30 50 70 100200 0 10 20 30 50 70 100200 

Pb, IN PARTS PER MILLION

70 

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20 

15 

10 

5 

n

M

n 

- ; 

*-';

* ':

!-:

V'- i

-:':

r: :

r:--:

-i 

-:

\ 

Limestone and 

dolomite

(877 samples)

x '.: :;

M:i I \ l-^.

I I I I I

Carbonaceous

shale 

(286 samples)

M -j

I j| ^

0 10 20 30 50 70 0 10 20 30 50 70 100 200 

Pb, IN PARTS PER MILLION

FIGURE 7. Lead content of common sedimentary rocks (from U.S. 

Geological Survey's rock analysis storage system). M, median; 3c, 

average.

of 162 ppm of lead in deep sea clay samples; they believed 

more than half of this lead to have been derived from 

seawater (p. 57). Similarly, in deep sea nodules of iron and 

manganese oxides, they obtained nearly 1,000 ppm lead, 

which they thought was adsorbed from seawater by 

hydrous colloidal oxides of iron and manganese.

Marine sediments deposited in shallow water appear to 

contain appreciably less lead than those deposited in deep 

water. Nearshore samples from the Pacific Ocean average 

only 20 ppm lead (Riley and Skirrow, 1965, p. 49), and 

similar lead contents are reported from Mediterranean Sea 

sediments (Bilyavskii, 1969), and Baltic Sea sediments 

(Lubchenko, 1970). However, in tectonically active areas, 

such as the Red Sea, where volcanic emanations and 

hydrothermal solutions mingle with marine water, lead 

content of the sediments can be greatly increased. 

Sediment samples from the bottom of hot brine pools in 

the Red Sea contain as much as 0.2 percent lead (Hendricks 

and others, 1969, p. 434).

This contrast between lead contents of deep and shallow 

marine sediments suggests that lead entering the marine 

environment has a tendency to move outward and downward toward the deeps. Such a theory would help to 

explain the low lead in evaporite sediments that formed in 

shallow basins; most of the lead may be presumed to have 

migrated seaward from these basins before the brines 

became sufficiently concentrated for the evaporite 

minerals to precipitate. Higher lead content of deep 

marine sediments may also be caused, in some places, by 

lead-bearing juvenile emanations entering the deep sea 

basins.

The normal lead content of unconsolidated terrestrial 

stream sediment appears to be comparable to that of shale. 

Holman (1963) found an average of 18 ppm lead in stream 

sediment samples from Nova Scotia. Analyses of more 

than 5,500 stream sediment samples from a large area in 

Maine yielded a mean of 25 ppm lead (F. C. Canney and 

Maurice Chaffee, written commun., 1971).

FOSSIL FUELS

The normal lead content of coal appears to be intermediate between that of shale and of the carbonate rocks, 

averaging about 10 ppm. Rao (1968) estimated that the 

lead content of Alaskan coal samples ranged from 1 to 50 

ppm and averaged 10 ppm. Published lead analyses of 

organic fuels samples are normally given as percent lead in 

ash, inasmuch as lead cannot be determined by ordinary 

analytical methods in the presence of large amounts of 

organic carbon. The values given by Rao for the lead 

content of the ash of Alaskan coal samples are approximately one order of magnitude higher than his estimated 

values for the raw coal, ranging from 20 to 400 ppm and 

averaging 100 ppm. Abernathy, Peterson, and Gibson 

(1969) presented data on the lead content of the ash of large 

numbers of coal samples from the western, interior, and
LEAD IN SEDIMENTARY ROCKS, SEDIMENTS, AND FOSSIL FUELS

eastern coal provinces of the United States. The average 

lead in ash was given as 29 ppm for the western province, 

131 ppm for the interior province, and 55 ppm for the 

eastern province.

The published data suggest that the lead content of coal 

tends to decrease as its rank increases. Duel and Annell 

(1956) found lead contents in ash of low-rank-coal samples 

ranging from 100 to 1,000 ppm. Nunn, Lovell, and Wright 

(1953, p. 56) estimated a range of 10-100 ppm in the lead 

content of anthracite ash; and Chow and Earl (1970, p. 46) 

found a range of 10.0-33.8 ppm of lead in the ash of 

anthracite samples from Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Headlee and Hunter (1955, p. 151-155) ran some 

experiments on the partitioning of lead in coal among the 

products of combustion. They concluded that the ashing 

techniques used in the laboratory retain essentially all of 

the lead in the ash, but that ordinary burning of coal in 

industrial processes volatilizes about 6 percent of the lead 

originally present in the coal. If we use this figure, and 

assume a lead content of 10 ppm (0.001 percent) in the coal, 

it would require the combustion of approximately 10,000 

tons of coal to introduce 1 pound (0.45 kg) of volatilized 

lead into the atmosphere. Industrial burning of coal 

samples with a lead content of 0.037 percent in the ash 

produced soot with a lead-in-ash content of 0.4 percent, 

and the ash of coal tar derived from this coal contained 2.84 

percent lead (Headlee and Hunter, 1955, p. 155).

The lead content of petroleum, although generally 

lower than that of coal, is extremely variable. Hyden (1961, 

p. 44-59) published extensive tables showing the lead 

content of crude oil samples from different parts of the 

country. Lead ranges from < 0.001 to 11.4 ppm and 

averages 0.025 ppm in the oil, and it ranges from < 0.0015 

to 300 ppm and averages 20 ppm in the ash. Donnell, 

Tailleur, and Tourtelot (1967) reported a maximum lead 

content of 200 ppm in the ash of samples of Alaskan oil 

shale.

REFERENCES CITED

Abernathy, R. F., Peterson, M. J., and Gibson, F. H., 1969, Spectrochemical analyses of coal ash for trace elements: U.S. Bur. Mines 

Rept. Inv. 7281, 30 p.

Bilyavskii, G. A., Mitropolskii, A. Yu., and Romanov, V. I., 1969, 

New data on the distribution of trace elements in the columns 

of bottom sediments in the Mediterranean Sea [in Ukranian]: Akad. 

Nauk Ukrayin RSR, DopovTdT, ser. B, v. 31, no. 12, p. 1059-1061; 

abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 72, no. 6931 If, 1972.

Cadigan, R. A., 1971, Geochemical distribution of some metals in 

the Moenkopi Formation and related strata, Colorado Plateau 

region: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1344, 56 p.

Chow, T. J., and Earl, J. L., 1970, Lead and uranium in Pennsylvanian 

anthracite: Chem. Geology, v. 6, no. 1, p. 43-49.

Davidson, D. F., and Lakin, H. W., 1961, Metal content of some black 

shales of the western United States, in Short papers in the geologic 

and hydrologic sciences: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 424-C, p. 

C329-C331.

 1962, Metal content of some black shales of the western conterminous United States, pt. 2, in Short papers in geology and hydrology: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 450-C, p. C74.

Deul, Maurice, and Annell, C. S., 1956, The occurrence of minor elements in the ash of low-rank coal from Texas, Colorado, North 

Dakota, and South Dakota: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1036-H, p. 

155-172.

Donnell, J. R., Tailleur, I. L., and Tourtelot, H. A., 1967, Alaskan 

oil shale: Colorado School Mines Quart., v. 62, no. 3, p. 39-43.

Ericson, D. B., Ewing, Maurice, Wollin, Goesta, and Heezen, B. C., 

1961, Atlantic deep-sea sediment cores: Geol. Soc. America Bull., 

v. 72, p. 193-285.

Gordon, Mackenzie, Jr., and Murata, K. J., 1952, Minor elements in 

Arkansas bauxite: Econ. Geology, v. 47, no. 2, p. 169-179.

Graf, D. L., 1960, Geochemistry of carbonate sediments and sedimentary carbonate rocks Pt. 3, Minor element distribution: 

Illinois State Geol. Survey Div. Circ. 301, 71 p.

Gyb'rgy, Bardossy, 1957, Bauxite in the region of Szoc and Nyirad 

[in Hungarian]: Magyar Allami Fbldt. Intez. Evkohyve 46, p. 

433-454.

Headlee, A. J. W., and Hunter, R. G., 1955, Changes in the concentration of the inorganic elements during coal utilization, in Characteristics of minable coals of West Virginia: West Virginia Geol. 

Survey [Rept.], v. 13a, p. 150-159.

Holman, R. H. C., 1963, A regional geochemical reconnaissance of 

stream sediments in the northern mainland of Nova Scotia, 

Canada: Canada Geol. Survey Paper 63-23, p. 1-19.

Hendricks, R. L., Reisbeck, F. B., Mahaffey, E. J., Roberts, D. B., 

and Peterson, M. M. A., 1969, Chemical composition of sediments 

and interstitial brines from the Atlantiss II, discovery and chain 

deeps, in Degens, E. T., and Ross, D. A., eds., Hot brines and 

recent heavy metal deposits in the Red Sea: New York, SpringerVerlag, p. 407-440.

Hyden, H. J., 1961, Distribution of uranium and other metals in crude 

oils: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1100-B, p. 17-99.

Krauskopf, K. B., 1955, Sedimentary deposits of rare metals: Econ. 

Geology, 50th Anniversary Vol [1905-1955], pt. 1, p. 411-463.

Lapchinskii, Yu. G., and Lapchinskaya, L. V., 1966, Trace elements 

in carboniferous formations of the Shebelinsk natural gas deposits 

[in Russian]: Ukrain. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Prirodnykh Gazov 

Trudy 1966, no. 2, p. 123-127; abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 67, no. 

8393a, 1967.

Lubchenko, I. Yu., 1970, Lead in recent Black Sea sediments [in 

Russian]: Akad. Nauk SSSR Doklady, v. 193, no. 2, p. 445-448.

McKelvey, V. E., Armstrong, F. C., Gulbrandson, R. A., and Cambell, 

R. M., 1953, Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation 

in Idaho, 1947-48, pt. 2: U.S. Geol. Survey Circ. 301, 58 p.

Maksimovic, Z., 1968, Distribution of trace elements in bauxite deposits 

of Herzegovina, Yugoslavia [in English]: Acad. Yugoslave Sci. 

Arts, Trav. Com. Int. Etude Bauxites, Oxydes, Hydroxydes Alum. 

1968, no. 5, p. 63-70; abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 69, no. 88747g, 1968.

Newman, W. L., 1962, Distribution of elements in sedimentary rocks 

of the Colorado Plateau A preliminary report: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Bull. 1107-F, p. 337-445.

Nunn, R. C., Lovell, H. L., and Wright, C. C., 1953, Spectrographic 

analysis of trace elements in anthracite: Anthracite Conf., llth, 

Lehigh Univ. 1953, Trans., p. 51-65.

Orekhov, S. Ya., 1968, Mineralogy and structural types of phosphorites 

of the Rostov region [in Russian]: Rostov na Donu Gosudarstvennogo Universitet, Uchenye Zapiski, v. 53, no. 9, p. 273-287.

Rao, P. D., 1968, Distribution of certain minor elements in Alaskan 

coals: Alaska Univ. Mineral Industry Research Lab. Rept. 15,47 p.

Razdoroshnyi, V. F., 1966, Copper, zinc and lead in rocks of small 

folding zone of Donets Basin (Lugansk geological district) [in 

Russian]: Polez. Iskop. Ukr. 1966, p. 203-206; abs. in Chem. Abs., 

v. 67, no. 83966b, 1967.

Riley, J. P., and Skirrow, G., eds., 1965, Chemical oceanography, 

V. 2: London, New York, Academic Press, 508 p.
34 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Sheldon, R. P., Werner, M. A., Thompson, M. E., and Pierce, H.

W., 1953, Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation in

Idaho, 1949, pt. 1: U.S. Geol. Survey Circ. 304, 30 p. 

Stewart, F. H., 1963, Marine evaporites: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper

440-Y, p. Y1-Y52. 

Tourtelot, H. A., 1962, Preliminary investigation of the geologic

setting and chemical composition of the Pierre Shale, Great Plains

region: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 390, 74 p.

Turekian, K. K., and Wedepohl, K. H., 1961, Distribution of the elements in some major units of the Earth's crust: Geol. Soc. America 

Bull., v. 72, no. 2, p. 175-192.

Vine, J. D., 1966, Element distribution in some shelf and eugeosynclinal black shales: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1214-E, p. E1-E31.

Wedepohl, K. H., 1971, Zinc and lead in common sedimentary rocks, 

app. to Lavery, N. G., and Barnes, H. L., Zinc dispersion in the 

Wisconsin zinc-lead district: Econ. Geology, v. 66, p. 240-242.
LEAD CONTENT OF WATER

By M. J. FISHMAN and J. D. HEM

The lead content of water is usually described in terms of 

concentrations of the dissolved element. For research 

purposes, the U.S. Geological Survey, in testing water 

samples for trace elements, considers dissolved material to 

be particles small enough to pass through a 0.45- jumpore-diameter membrane. Although this is an arbitrary 

operational definition and some colloidal material may 

pass through the filter, the 0.45- jum size limit is widely 

used. Where data are given here on dissolved lead, they 

may be assumed to represent material that passed through 

a 0.45- jum-porosity filter. Until recently very little 

attention has been given to the minor-element content of 

material caught on the filter, and it is not possible to 

obtain from published literature any clear indication of 

the importance of the suspended fraction in the total 

quantity of lead transported by streams. There is some 

evidence, however, that, at times, considerable amounts 

may be present in suspension in streams carrying direct 

runoff from urbanized areas.

LEAD IN SURFACE WATERS

A considerable amount of information on lead concentrations in surface waters has been obtained since the late 

1950's. However, the observations tend to be sporadic and 

scattered, and the details of the chemical behavior of the 

element and its occurrence in any single stream have not 

been fully explored. Kleinkopf (1960) reported a mean lead 

concentration of 2.3 /xg/1 in waters from 440 lakes in the 

State of Maine, with a range of 0.03-115 /xg/1. Durum, 

Heidel, andTison (1960) reported concentrations of a suite 

of minor elements, including lead, for samples from major 

streams throughout the world. Data from their report and 

supplementary unpublished analyses in U.S. Geological 

Survey files show a range of lead concentrations from 0 to 

200 /ig/1, with an average of 8.4 /tg/1. There were 93 

samples in this group, representing 27 streams, mostly in 

North America. Lead occurred in concentrations above the 

detection limit in more than 90 percent of the samples. 

The samples in the study by Durum, Heidel, and Tison 

were filtered before analysis, but the filter only removed 

particles over 1 /nm in diameter. Consequently these lead 

values may include some from material usually found in 

suspension as well as that in solution.

Since 1960, the U.S. Geological Survey has performed 

more than 1,600 lead determinations on surface-water 

samples collected throughout the United States. These 

samples were analyzed for lead by spectrographic and 

atomic-absorption techniques, which are discussed by M. 

J. Fishman (this report). Most of the samples were from 

one of three sources: (1) public water supplies, (2) water 

courses downstream from major municipal or industrial 

complexes, and (3) U.S. Geological Survey hydrolo>gic 

bench-mark stations.

The dissolved-lead concentrations in these samples, 

representing surface waters in all 50 states as well as 

Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, range from "not 

detected" to 890 /tg/1. However, lead only rarely occurs in 

amounts exceeding the U.S. Public Health Service (1963) 

drinking water standard of 50 /*g/l lead. Only 13 of the 

more than 1,600 samples analyzed, or less than 1 percent, 

contained concentrations in excess of 50 /*g/l. Of the 13 

samples, only 3 contained more than 100 /*g/l lead, or 

more than twice the U.S. Public Health Service limit. 

Eighty-six percent of the samples contained less than 10 

/A g/1. Most surface waters, except for water courses downstream from major municipal and industrial complexes, 

evidently contain less than 10 fig/1 of dissolved lead.

Table 12 summarizes, by States, the maximum and 

minimum concentrations of lead found in surface waters 

of the United States. Also included in the summary are the 

percentage of samples containing less than 10 ng/\ and 

the number of samples that exceeded the U.S. Public 

Health Service drinking water limit. The data in this table, 

which cover the period from 1960 through 1971, were 

obtained from Durfor and Becker (1964), and Durum, 

Hem, and Heidel (1971), and from miscellaneous spectrographic data from analyses performed in the U.S. 

Geological Survey laboratory in Denver, Colo., under the 

direction of P. R. Barnett.

Table 13 shows lead concentrations in selected surface 

waters of the United States, as determined from 

miscellaneous spectrographic analyses.

Several in-depth studies of surface water in individual 

States and regions have also been carried out. Silvey (1967) 

reported an average concentration of 5.7 /xg/1 of lead in 

streams of California in which the element could be
36 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 12. Maximum and minimum concentrations of lead found in 

surface waters of the United States and Puerto Rico from 1960 to 

1971

[ND, sought but not found]

Number of Percent 

samples equaling of sample 

Number of or exceeding having 

samples mandatory maximum less than 

for drinking water 1 1 0 ju g/1

Alabama.................

Alaska.....................

Arizona...................

Arkansas.................

California...............

Colorado.................

District of

Florida....................

Idaho......................

Kansas ....................

Mississippi .............

Missouri .................

Montana.................

Nebraska.................

Nevada....................

New Hampshire..... 

New Jersey .............

New Mexico...........

New York

North Carolina ...... 

North Dakota.........

Ohio.......................

Oklahoma ..............

Oregon ...................

Pennsylvania..........

Rhode Island..........

South Carolina.......

South Dakota.........

Tennessee...............

Utah.......................

Wyoming................

Puerto Rico............

Total ...............

Percent of total 

samples.......

76 

9 

19

32

40 

70 

50

4

4 

37 

22 

8 

26

23 

46 

14 

14 

10

19 

7 

29 

24 

25

30 

11 

103 

25 

21

8 

5 

150 

34 

211

27 

22 

31 

16 

14

65 

5 

17 

22 

21

46 

28 

3 

16 

17

22 

18 

37 

40

1,673

1 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

1 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

1 

0 

1 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

1 

2 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

2 

0

1 

0 

0 

0 

2

0 

0 

1 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0

13

96 

100 

89 

81

68 

89 

72 

25

100 

100 

41 

100 

100

48 

89 

100 

100 

60

95

57 

93 

75 

92

97 

82 

84 

96 

81

100 

80 

88 

91 

92

70 

86 

100 

75 

100

71 

100 

94 

68 

67

98 

89 

0 

81 

100

86 

83 

289 

85

86

Lead 

s concentration

(Mg/1)

Maximum Minimum

50.0 

5.0 

12.0 

20.0

34.0 

30.0 

50.0 

23.0

5.8 

6.0 

32.0 

< 1.0 

6.0

25.0 

20.0

5.7 

7.5 

20.0

11.0 

890.0 

43.0 

87.0 

15.0

17.0 

10.0 

38.0 

23.0 

40.0

5.0 

70.0 

240.0 

10.0 

22.0

32.0 

37.0 

7.9 

94.0 

< 1.0

55.0 

8.0 

11.0 

35.0 

390.0

11.0 

12.0 

50.0 

42.0 

7.0

44.0 

26.0 

3.0 

19.0

ND

< 1.0 

ND

< .8

<1.0 

ND 

<1.0 

2:0

<1.0 

< .7 

<1.0 

<1.0 

<1.0

2.5 

ND 

<1.0 

ND 

<1.0

<1.0 

5.0 

<1.0 

1.3 

2.0

<1.0 

<1.0 

< .5 

<1.0 

<1.0

<1.0 

4.0 

<1.0 

ND 

<1.0

<1.0 

<1.0 

ND 

<1.0 

< 1.0

2.0 

3.4 

< 1.0 

< 1.0 

< 1.0

ND 

< 1.0 

13.0 

<1.0

< .5

<1.0 

2.0 

<1.0 

<1.0

"50 Lig/1, as established by the U.S. Public Health Service (1963). 

includes four values above 10 ;ug/l.

detected. However, lead concentrations were below the 

detection limit (0.6 /xg/1) in 78 percent of the stream 

samples analyzed.

A comprehensive investigation of the distribution of 

dissolved lead in Florida surface waters was carried out by 

the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the 

Bureau of Geology, Florida Department of Natural 

Resources, and other State and local agencies (C. S. 

Conover, written commun., 1971). More than 180 samples 

were analyzed; concentrations of lead ranged from 0 to 40 

/x g/1. The samples were collected during low (May 1970) 

and high (September 1970) streamflow conditions. The 

data for May 1970 indicate the following: (1) lead was 

found in about 60 percent of the samples in concentrations ranging from 1 to 30 /xg/1; (2) 78 percent of all 

samples had lead concentrations equal to or less than 10 

/xg/1; and (3) 4 percent of all samples had concentrations of 

30/xg/1. For September 1970, the following was observed: 

(1) lead was found in about 73 percent of the samples in 

concentrations ranging from 1 to 40Mg/l; (2) 75 percent of 

all samples had concentrations equal to or less than 10 

/x g/1; and (3) 7 percent of all samples had lead concentrations equal to or greater than 30 /xg/1.

Several other investigators have reported the lead 

content of various lake and river waters. Boswell, Brooks, 

and Wilson (1967) reported that the lead concentration in 

the bottom waters of Lakes Joyce and Hoare in Antarctica 

were 340 /xg/1 and 83-91 /xg/1, respectively. The lead 

content of the water of the Orange River at Vioolsdrif, 

Cape Province, Union of South Africa, was reported by 

DeVilliers (1962) to range from less than 0.001 to 136 ppm 

(1,360 /xg/1), based on 24, samples collected over a period 

of 1 year. Zhukhovitskaya, Zamyatkina, and Lukashev 

(1966) reported that lead concentrations in streams of the 

upper Dnieper basin ranged from 0.01 to 0.55 ppb. 

Lukashev, Zhukhovitskaya, and Zamyatkina (1965) found 

that lead concentrations in the surface waters of the Poles'e 

territory near Pripyat in the Belorussian S. S. R. ranged 

from 2 to 13.3 ppb. Krainov and Korol'kova (1964) 

analyzed mineral waters of the Lesser Caucasus and found 

a maximum lead concentration of 40 /xg/1. Turekian and 

Kleinkopf (1956) determined lead in 439 stream and lake 

waters of Maine by a semiquantitative spectrographic 

procedure. The average concentration of lead was 0.26 

ppb. Heidel and Frenier (1965) reported on the lead 

concentration of 156 surface waters, including some 

samples from the estuary of the Patuxent, River basin, 

Maryland. The lead content ranged from 0.9 to 11 /xg/1, 

with an average of 5 /xg/1. A survey of the concentration of 

lead and other trace elements in the Colorado, Columbia, 

Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers and in the Great 

Lakes was presented by Kroner and Kopp (1965). In only a 

few samples did the lead concentration exceed the U.S. 

Public Health Service drinking water standard. For most 

samples the concentration of lead was below the detection
LEAD CONTENT OF WATER 37

TABLE 13. Lead concentrations in selected surface waters of the United States

Sample locality Date of 

collection

Lead Concentration

(jug/1 )

Reference

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do.

Alabama:

Sipsey Fork, near Grayson ............................................ Sept. 10,1970 1 J. R. Avrett (oral commun., 1971).

Coosa River, at Gadsden............................................... Nov. 30, 1970 2 Do.

Cahaba River, near Centreville..................................... Feb. 4,1971 1 Do.

Arizona:

Wet Bottom Creek, near Childs.................................... Sept. 16,1968 < 1 N. B. Carmony (written commun., 1971).

Canal (Gila River), near Arlington.............................. Sept. 18, 1968 < 1 Do.

Arkansas: Nov. 6, 1967 5 U.S. Geological Survey (1968a).

Bayou Meto, near Lonoke............................................

Bayou Bartholomew, near McGehee............................ Nov. 7,1967 < 5

White River, at Clarendon............................................ Nov. 6,1967 4

Saline River, near Rye................................................... Nov. 7, 1967 < 2

Ouachita River, at Arkadelphia.................................... Nov. 8,1967 3

Little River, near Ashdown........................................... Nov. 9, 1967 1

Black River, at Black Rock........................................... Nov. 16,1967 <4

Colorado:

Arkansas River, at Granite............................................ Jan. 19, 1967 30 U.S. Geological Survey (1967a).

South Platte River, near Henderson............................. Jan. 15, 1971 4 R. Brennan (written commun., 1971).

Connecticut:

Naugatuck River, at Beacon Falls................................. Oct. 5, 1967 30 U.S. Geological Survey (1968b).

Hockanum River, near Rockville................................. Aug. 14,1968 26 Do.

Florida:

Sopchoppy River, near Sopchoppy............................... Mar. 10,1970 6 R. L. Malcolm (written commun., 1971).

Iowa:

Big Sioux River, at Akron............................................. Apr. 4, 1967 3 U.S. Geological Survey (1967c).

Massachusetts: ,

Connecticut River, at Northfield.................................. July-Nov. 1970 30 C. E. Knox (written commun., 1971)'.

(composite)

Hoosic River, below Williamstown.............................. July-Dec. 1970 3 Do.

(composite) 

Missouri:

West Fork Black River, at Westfork.............................. Oct. 24, 1967 5 U.S. Geological Survey (1968c).

Turkey Creek, near Joplin............................................ Mar. 19,1968 25 Do.

Spring River, near Waco............................................... June 26, 1968 <4 Do.

Sedalia Lake, near Sedalia............................................. Oct. 29,1970 1 A. Homyk (written commun., 1971).

James River, near Springfield....................................... Feb. 16, 1971 < 4 Do.

Missouri River, near St. Louis...................................... Mar. 12, 1971 4 Do.

Montana:

Blackfoot River, near Lincoln....................................... Aug. 22,1969 <3 U.S. Geological Survey (1969).

Nebraska:

Dismal River, near Thedford........................................ June 13,1967 13 L. R. Petri (written commun., 1971).

Missouri River, at Omaha............................................. Mar. 19,1971 2 A. Homyk (written commun., 1971).

New Hampshire:

Pemigewasset River, at Woodstock............................... July-Oct. 1970 70 C. E. Knox (written commun., 1971) 1 .

(composite) 

New Jersey:

Passaic River, at Chatham............................................ Aug. 28,1970 9 P. W. Anderson (written commun., 1971) 1 . Whippany River, at Morristown................................... do 5 Do.

Rockaway River, at Boonton........................................ Sept. 1,1970 3 Do.

Hackensack River, at River Vale................................... Sept. 2, 1970 12 Do.

Millstone River, near Manville..................................... Sept. 3,1970 <2 Do.

Raritan River, near Manville........................................ do <2 Do.

Assunpink Creek, at Trenton........................................ do <3 Do.

Delaware River, at Trenton........................................... Sept. 29, 1970 2 Do.

New Mexico:

Pecos River, at Artesia................................................... Apr. 7,1970 <2 K. Ong (written commun., 1971) 1 .

Rio Mora, at Terrero..................................................... Oct. 5,1970 .7 Do.

Mogollon Creek, near Cliff........................................... Oct. 14, 1970 .8 Do.

New York:

Allegheny River, at Salamanca..................................... Sept. 21,1967 <3 U.S. Geological Survey (1967b).

Oneida Lake, at Brewerton ........................................... Oct. 1, 1969 < 2 R. J. Archer (written commun., 1971) 1 .

Susquehanna River, at Johnson City........................... Apr. 6,1970 1 Do.

Lake Champlain, at Crown Point................................ June 2,1970 7 Do.

Niagara River, at City of Niagara Falls........................ Nov. 16, 1970 < 5 Do.

Lake Ontario, at Oswego.............................................. Dec. 9,1970 4 Do.

Hudson River, at Poughkeepsie.................................... Dec. 16,1970 2 Do.

St. Lawrence River, at Alexandria Bay......................... Dec. 14,1970 <3 Do.

Black River, at Watertown............................................ Feb. 22,1971 1 Do.

North Carolina:

Neuse River, at Raleigh................................................ July 9,1970 .7 R. Heath (written commun., 1971).

South Dakota:

Belle Fourche River, at Wyoming-South Dakota 

boundary.................................................................... Oct. 13,1970 <30 F. C. Boner (written commun., 1971).

Wyoming:

Lararnie River, at Laramie............................................ Apr. 23, 1970 < 7

Cache Creek, near Jackson............................................ Sept. 1,1970 <2

North Platte River, below Casper................................. Jan. 13, 1971 < 8

Bighorn River, at Kane................................................. Jan. 26, 1971_______< 5________

'See Pt. 2, Water Quality Records, of the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Resources Data series, for the respective State and water year.

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do.
38 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

limit of the spectrographic method used to analyze the 

samples.

The data of Durum, Hem, and Heidel (1971) show a distinct regional pattern of dissolved-lead distribution in 

river water in the United States. Concentrations above the 

detection limit occurred in nearly all sources sampled in 

the States along the Atlantic Coast and in most sources in 

thickly populated regions around the Great Lakes. In the 

more thinly populated regions west of the Mississippi, a 

high proportion of the sources had less than 1 /Ag/1 of lead, 

but relatively high concentrations appeared again along 

the Pacific Coast in streams of the Los Angeles, San Francisco; and Seattle areas. There were areas of higher concentrations in lead mining regions in Wisconsin, near the 

Ozark Mountains, and in northern Idaho and adjacent 

areas. The distribution pattern may be explained by considering the sources of environmental lead and by the solubility of lead carbonate and hydroxide from industrial 

wastes in river water.

Livingstone (1963) stated that from data then available 

it seemed likely that the global mean lead content for lakes 

and rivers ranged from 1 to 10 ppb. Data cited here suggest 

that this is a reasonable estimate for the dissolved fraction. 

In general, the presence of a few tens of micrograms per 

litre of lead in solution in river water appears to be most 

common in areas of heavy automobile traffic and extensive 

industrial development. In the vicinity of lead ore deposits, the content of lead in river water may also be in this 

range or higher.

Lead can be carried as a colloidal suspension of hydroxide in river water, and it may also be present as a coating on 

other mineral particles, or as ions sorbed on mineral 

surfaces. The available data do not clearly show the 

importance of suspended lead. Konovalov, Ivanova, and 

Kolesnikov (1968) determined lead concentrations in 

paniculate material carried by 33 rivers in the U.S.S.R.; no 

data are given in their report for dissolved forms of lead. 

Concentrations of lead associated with sediment were as 

high as 152 ju,g/l of the original water sample, but most 

were below 40 ju,g/l. The analyses for lead in solution 

apparently all showed concentrations below detection, but 

it is not certain that the methods used give results that are 

comparable with those of other investigations cited here.

LEAD IN PRECIPITATION AND RUNOFF WATERS

A large amount of lead is used each year in the United 

States as a gasoline additive. This lead is mostly dispersed 

in the atmosphere, and has a readily measurable influence 

on the composition of rainfall and, hence, of runoff 

waters especially in the more thickly populated parts of 

the country. Lazrus, Lorange, and Lodge (1970) reported 

the average concentration of lead in rainfall to be 34 ju,g/l 

for 32 precipitation measuring stations throughout the 

United States during a 7-month period ending in March 

1967. The concentrations of lead in rainfall in the northeastern part of the country, however, are known to exceed 

this average substantially. In addition, many of the dilute, 

relatively low pH solutions that constitute the usual river 

and lake waters in this region have a high capacity for 

retaining lead in solution at equilibrium. Many such 

waters could attain lead concentrations amounting to 

several hundred micrograms per litre before reaching 

chemical saturation. The potential for higher concentrations in the surface waters of industrialized and thickly 

settled regions does exist, although concentrations in this 

range have not yet become common enough to be brought 

to light by the rather thin distribution of sampling and 

analysis thus far accomplished. The amounts of lead used 

as gasoline additives each year in the United States are 

enough to give an average lead concentration near 150 

ju, g/1 for all the runoff leaving the conterminous 48 States 

in the average year. This figure, of course, indicates only 

that lead is available in amounts that are of considerable 

potential hydrochemical significance. Just how much 

lead might be expected to accumulate in a particular 

stream at a given time depends on many other factors. The 

greatest contributions to runoff in most large streams 

come from areas where population is relatively sparse and 

lead is less abundant. A considerable fraction of the lead 

brought down in rain or snow can be expected to be intercepted and retained by soil and vegetation; however, the 

direct runoff from urbanized areas may contain substantial lead concentrations at times, and further study 

will probably show that such occurrences are not rare.

It is important that studies of lead in river water be 

continued, with special efforts to measure solubility 

parameters (pH and alkalinity) and to determine the 

paniculate fraction of lead in runoff, especially in early 

stages of runoff events.

LEAD IN GROUND WATERS

The lead concentrations found in ground waters of 

many States and Puerto Rico are summarized in table 14. 

Again, spectrographic techniques were used for determining the lead in most of these samples. Atomicabsorption techniques were used for a few samples. Of the 

353 samples anlayzed, only two contained lead concentrations exceeding the U.S. Public Health Service 

drinking water standards. Eighty percent of the samples 

contained less than 10 ju,g/l of lead.

The amounts of lead in ground waters used for public 

supplies in some of the larger cities of the United States 

were reported by Durfor and Becker (1964). Most of the 

samples represented treated water, and treatment may have 

influenced some of the concentrations. Results of 57 

analyses, many representing mixed water from several 

wells, were given. Detectable concentrations of lead were 

present in 30 of these; the remainder had concentrations 

below detection. The lower limit of detection in these 

solutions was variable and rather high, generally above 2
LEAD CONTENT OF WATER 39

TABLE 14. Maximum and minimum concentrations of lead found in 

ground waters of some States and Puerto Rico 1960 to 1971. 

[ND, sought but not found]

Number of

,. , , samples equaling Number of 

or exceeding samples , . mandatory maximu

for drinking water 1

Alabama............

Arizona..............

California..........

Colorado............

Connecticut.......

Illinois...............

Nebraska............

New Jersey ........

New Mexico......

North Carolina . 

Ohio..................

Pennsylvania.....

Utah..................

Washington.......

Wyoming...........

Puerto Rico.......

Total..........

Percent of total

2 

9 

7 

103 

1

14 

1 

3 

2 

3

3 

5 

4 

43 

8

1 

8 

13 

19 

1

26 

27 

5 

14 

1

1 

2 

1 

20 

6

353

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

0

0 

0 

0 

0 

1

0 

0 

0

1

0

2

Percent 

of samples 

containing

Lead 

concentration

dug/')

1 10 jUg/1 Maximum Minimum

100 

56 

14 

96 

100

78 

100 

100 

100

67

267 

100 

100 

95 

50

100 

75 

31 

89 

100

54 

74 

100 

86 

0

100 

50 

100 

90 

33

80

ND

40 

46 

30

< 8

40 

< 2.6

5.8 

7.5 

21

4 

4 

4.5 

10 

<35

ND

<22 

30 

10 

< 3

30 

29 

3.2 

38 

62

< 9 

11

7.4 

240

( 3 )

ND 

ND

5.7 

< .5 

<8

ND

<2.6 

.6 

ND 

ND

ND

<2 

ND

<2 

<4

ND 

1 

ND 

ND

<3

<3 

<2 

<1.7 

ND

<9 

<2.6

<1

( 3 )

'50 jUg/1, as determined by U.S. Public Health Service (1963).

includes one value above 10 jUg/1.

'All values are reported as "less than," because of high dissolved solids.

/j. g/1. The highest value observed was 62 Mg/1, but this 

was a definite anomaly; most concentrations observed 

were between 2 and 10 ju.g/1. Lead has a very low solubility 

in water that contains moderate concentrations of 

bicarbonate ions and has a pH near 8. Many ground waters 

display these properties, and thus are expected to be low in 

dissolved lead concentration.

Silvey (1967) found detectable amounts of lead in 17 

percent of the samples from springs and in 15 percent of 

the samples from wells and oil-field brines collected at 

various sites in California. The average concentration of 

lead for the water in these samples was 17 Mg/1 for the 

springs and 2.8 ju.g/1 for the wells and oil-field brines. 

However, one of the spring samples contained 143 Mg/1, 

which strongly influenced the reported average.

The compilation of analyses of ground waters by White, 

Hem, and Waring (1963) contains a few values for lead

concentrations, although the element was not generally 

determined. The highest reported concentration was 

about 1,400 /Ag/1 in water from Wilbur Spring, Colusa 

County, Calif. Several other saline or thermal waters 

contained a few tens or hundreds of micrograms per litre, 

but most analyses for lead indicated concentrations below 

detection limits. In general, the ground waters that 

contained significant concentrations of lead were either 

high in chloride or low in pH, and had relatively high 

temperatures.

More than 100 spring-water samples were collected east 

of the Continental Divide in Colorado (E. C. Mallory, Jr., 

written commun., 1971). The dissolved-solids content of 

these samples ranged from less than 50 mg/1 to more than 

28,000 mg/1. Lead concentrations were generally low; 68 

percent of the samples contained 1 Mg/1 or less. Only four 

samples contained more than 10 /Ag/1, and the maximum 

concentration was 30 Mg/1- Lead concentrations in 

Missouri ground waters were also found to be generally 

low (E. C. Mallory, Jr., written commun., 1971). Of the 43 

samples analyzed, 42 contained less than 10 Mg/1 of lead; 

the remaining sample contained 10 MS/1- Kosolapova 

(1963) reported that the lead content of subsurface waters 

in the Olenek River basin of Russia ranged from 5 to 90

I" g/1.

Goleva, Polyakov, and Nechayeva (1970) reported 15 

analyses of ground waters associated with ore deposits and 

21 analyses of mineral and saline ground waters from 

various localities in the USSR. In the waters from ore 

deposits, the highest lead concentration found was 1,680 

M g/1, but all the rest were below 100 Mg/1; the water 

containing the highest concentration was strongly acid, 

with a pH below 1.0. The mineral and saline waiters 

generally contained from 1.9 to 11.4 Mg/1 of lead.

Acid mine drainage samples in some areas contribute 

large quantities of iron, manganese, aluminum, and other 

elements to surface waters. A number of acid mine waters 

from Pennsylvania and Maryland and one from West 

Virginia have been analyzed by a U.S. Geological Survey 

laboratory in Denver, Colo. The concentrations of iron, 

aluminum, and manganese in these samples are high, 

showing maximum values of 190,000, 130,000, and 13,000 

M g/1, respectively. On the other hand, the lead concentrations were low; 86 percent of the samples contained less 

than 10 Mg/1 lead, and 80 percent contained less than 5 

I" g/1.

LEAD IN THERMAL WATERS

Several investigators have made chemical studies of the 

lead content of hot-springs waters. The lead content of the 

waters at Stubic, Yugoslavia, was reported by Miholic 

(1945) to be 0.003 mg/kg (approximately 3 /ug/ 1 )- In seven 

hot springs of Shikabe, Hokkaido, Japan, Uzumasa and 

Akaiwa (1960) determined lead concentrations ranging 

from 0.09 to 0.36 mg/1. Noguchi and Nishiido (1969) deter-
40 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

mined lead in Tateyama-jigokudani hot springs in 

Toyama Prefecture, Japan. Eighteen samples were 

analyzed colorimetrically with dithizone, and the concentrations of lead found ranged from 0.00 to 1.25 mg/1. 

Minami, Sato, and Watanuki (1957, 1958) analyzed hotspring waters of Tamagawa, Akita Prefecture, Japan. In 

10 springs along the main Tamagawa stream, the lead 

concentrations ranged from 0.98 to 1.8 mg/1. In 10 springs 

in. the Yukawa River, the average lead content was 1 .29 

mg/1.

Goleva, Polyakov, and Nechayeva (1970) gave analyses 

of four thermal waters from the U.S.S.R. One, from a 

fumarole at Ebeko volcano, had 34.7 pg/l lead. The other 

three (carbonate and nitrogen-carbonate brines), obtained 

from the thermal area of Cheleken, had from 1,210 to 4,000 

yu.g/1. These waters were very saline, containing more 

than 200 g/1 of dissolved solids, and some of the other 

waters of this area were reported to contain up to 6 mg/1 of 

lead.

LEAD IN SEAWATERS

Tatsumoto and Patterson (1963) determined lead 

concentrations in seawaters off southern California using 

isotope dilution techniques. The lead content ranged from 

0.08 to 0.4 ju.g/1 and averaged 0.2 ju.g/1. In deep waters, the 

concentration did not vary much and averaged 0.03 Mg/1. 

Skurnik-Sarig, Zidon, Zak, and Cohen (1970) were unable 

to detect lead in Atlantic Ocean waters. However, in the 

Mediterranean Sea, the lead content at Ashdod and 

Palmachim, Israel, was 340 and 170 ju.g/1, respectively. In 

Black Sea samples, Belyaev (1966) reported that the lead 

content was 3.6 ppb. This value represents an average of 

determinations made in the course of 5 years at a number 

of sites. Loveridge and others (1960) stated that lead in 

seawater is associated with the suspended solids that are 

removed by filters that retain particles 1 jim in diameter or 

larger. The values found for dissolved lead in their study 

ranged from 0.6 to 1.5

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abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 66, no. 118688w, 1967. 

Boswell, C. R., Brooks, R. R., and Wilson, A. F., 1967, Trace element

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DeVilliers, P. R., 1962, The chemical composition of the water of

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in Chem. Abs., v. 62, no. 10220h, 1965. 

Durfor, C. N., and Becker, Edith, 1964, Public water supplies of the

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Water-Supply Paper 1812, 364 p. 

Durum, W. H., Heidel, S. C., and Tison, L. G., 1960, World-wide

runoff of dissolved solids: Comm. Surface Waters, Internal. Assoc.

Sci. Hydrology General Assembly, Helsinki 1960, Internal. Assoc.

Sci. Hydrology Pub. 51, p. 618-628.

Durum, W. H., Hem, J. D., and Heidel, S. G., 1971, Reconnaissance 

of selected minor elements in surface waiers of the United Siaies, 

October 1970: U.S. Geol. Survey Circ. 643, 49 p.

Goleva, G. A., Polyakov, V. A., and Nechayeva, T. P., 1970, Dislribulion and migralion of lead in ground waiers [in Russian]: Geokhimiya 1970, p. 344-357; iranslaied in Geochemislry Iniernai., 

1970, p. 256-268.

Heidel, S. G., and Frenier, W. W., 1965, Chemical qualily of waier 

and irace elemenls in ihe Paluxeni River basin: Maryland Geol. 

Survey Repl. Inv. 1, 40 p.

Kleinkopf, M. D., 1960, Specirographic deierminalion of irace elemenls 

in lake waiers of northern Maine: Geol. Soc. America Bull., v. 

71,p. 1231-1242.

Konovalov, G. S., Ivanova, A. A., Kolesnikov, T. Kh., 1968, Trace 

and rare elements dissolved in water and carried by suspended 

sediments of principal rivers of the U.S.S.R., in Geochemistry 

of sedimentary rocks and ores: Moscow, Izdate 1'suo "Nauk", 435 p.

Kosolapova, M. N., 1963, Microcomponenls in nalural waiers of the 

Olenek River basin: Akad. Nauk SSSR Yakutskogo Filiala Sibirsk. 

Old. Trudy, Ser. Geol. 1963, no. 16, p. 56-74; abs. in Chem. Abs., 

v. 59, no. 9673f, 1963.

Krainov, S. R., and Korol'kova, M. Kh., 1964, Dislribulion of some 

trace elements in the mineral waters of the Lesser Caucasus: 

Vsesoyuz. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Gidrogeol. i Inzh. Geol. Trudy 

[N.S.], no. 9, p. 72-93; abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 61, no. 10439e, 1964.

Kroner, R. C., and Kopp, J. F., 1965, Trace elemenls in six water 

systems of the United States: Am. Water Works Assoc. Jour., v. 

57, no. 2, p. 150-156.

Lazrus, A. L., Lorange, Elizabeth, and Lodge, J. P., Jr., 1970, Lead 

and other metal ions in United States precipitalion: Environmental Sci. and Technology, v. 44, p. 55-58.

Livingstone, D. A., 1963, Chemical composilion of rivers and lakes: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 440-G, 64 p.

Loveridge, B. A., Milner, G. W. C., Barnell, G. A., Thomas, A. M., 

and Henry, W. M., 1960, Determination of Cu, Cr, Pb, and Mn 

in sea water: Atomic Energy Research Estab. [Gl. Brilain] [Repl.] 

R-3323, 36 p.; abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 54, no. 24118h, 1960.

Lukashev, K. L, Zhukhovlskaya, A. L., and Zamyatkina, A. A., 1965, 

Heavy metals in surface waters of the Poles'e territory near Pripyal 

in ihe Belorussian S.S.R. [in Russian]: Akad. Nauk Beloruss. 

SSR Doklady, v. 9, no. 3, p. 183-186; abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 63, 

no. 1584e, 1965.

Miholic, Stanko, 1945, The chemical analysis of the hot-spring water 

al Slubic: Rad. Hrvatske Akad. Znanosti i Umjemosli. Razreda 

Mat-Prirodslov, v. 278, no. 86, p. 195-211; abs. in Chem. Abs., 

v. 40, no. 4158-6, 1946.

Minami, Eiichi, Sato, Gen, and Watanuki, Kunihiko, 1957, Arsenic 

and lead contents of the hot springs of Tamagawa, Akita 

Prefecture [Pt.] 1: Nippon Kagaku Zasshi, v. 78, p. 1096-1100; 

abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 52, no. 11323e, 1958.

____1958, Arsenic and lead contents of the hoi springs of Tamagawa,

Akita Prefecture [Pt.] 2: Nippon Kagaku Zasshi, v. 79, p. 860-865; 

abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 52, no. 18968i, 1958.

Noguchi, Kimio, and Nishiido, Toshio, 1969, Behavior of copper, zinc, 

and lead in Tateyama-jigokudani hoi springs in Toyama Prefecture [in Japanese]: Nippon Kagaku Zasshi, v. 90, no. 8, p. 781-786; 

abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 71, no. 105046p, 1969.

Silvey, W. D., 1967, Occurrence of selected minor elemenls in the waters 

of California: U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 1535-L, 25 p.

Skurnik-Sarig, Sarah, Zidon, Moshe, Zak, L, and Cohen, Yves, 1970, 

Lead deierminalion in nalural saline waiers by UV spectrophotometry: Israel Jour. Chemistry, v. 8, no. 3, p. 545-549; abs. in Chem. 

Abs., v. 73, no. 101881a, 1970.

Tatsumoto, M., and Pallerson, C. C., 1963, The conceniration of 

common lead in sea water, in Geiss, J., and Goldberg, E. D.,
LEAD CONTENT OF WATER 41

compilers, Earth science and meteoritics: New York, Interscience, 

p. 74-89.

Turekian, K. K., and Kleinkopf, M. D., 1956, Estimates of the average 

abundance of Cu, Mn, Pb, Ti, Ni, and Cr in surface waters of 

Maine: Geol. Soc. America Bull. 67, p. 1129-1131.

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1967 Pt. 2, Water quality records: Denver, Colo., U.S. Geol. Survey, Water Resources Div., 101 p.

____1967b, Water resources data for New York, 1967 Pt. 2, Water 

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Div., 160 p.

____1967c, Water resources data for Soudi Dakota, 1967 Pt. 2, 

Water quality records: Huron, S. Dak., U.S. Geol. Survey, Water 

Resources Div., 165 p.

____I968a, Water resources data for Arkansas, 1968 Pt. 2, Water 

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_1968c, Water resources data for Missouri, 1968 Pt. 2, Water 

quality records: Rolla, Mo., U.S. Geol. Survey, Water Resources 

Div., p. 189-299.

_1969, Water resources data for Montana, 1969 Pt. 2, Water

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of the springs of Shikabe, [Pt.] 58, of Chemical investigations 

of hot springs in Japan: Nippon Kagaku Zasshi, v. 81, p. 912-915; 

abs. in Chem. Abs., v. 55, no. 3883b, 1961.

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67 p.

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Nauk Beloruss. SSR Doklady, v. 10, no. 11, p. 891-893; abs. in 

Chem. Abs., v. 66, no. 49131v, 1967.

LEAD IN SOILS

By R. R. TIDBALL

INTRODUCTION

Investigation of the lead content of agricultural soils 

was first stimulated by the known toxic effects of lead on 

plants, animals, and man; more recently, the development of geochemical prospecting techniques has resulted 

in analysis of nonagricultural soils for anomalous lead 

concentrations related to mineralization. Lead is among 

the trace elements listed as harmful to various plants and 

animals (McMurtrey and Robinson, 1938, p. 808; Swaine, 

1955, p. vi), and the toxicity of lead is of continuing 

concern in human health (U.S. Public Health Service, 

1966; Kehoe, 1971). Early interest in the concentration of 

lead in soil came as a result of pollution by effluent from 

smelters (Holmes and others, 1915) and pesticide sprays in 

orchards (Jones and Hatch, 1937, 1945). Geochemical 

prospecting activities, which greatly expanded in the 

1930's (Hawkes, 1957, p. 314), stimulated interest in background concentrations of metals in soils as an aid to 

identifying mineralized zones. More recent interest stems 

from the contamination of soils along highways by automotive exhaust (Cannon and Bowles, 1962; Singer and 

Hanson, 1969; Ault and others, 1970; Dedolph and others, 

1970; Motto and others, 1970; Schuck and Locke, 1970; 

Connor and others, 1971).

The natural concentration of any trace element in soil 

can be viewed in at least two ways. First, the concentrations of such elements may be expressed as total 

amounts, which include all modes of occurrence ranging 

from water-soluble salts to relatively immobile forms 

locked within the crystal lattice of primary minerals. 

Second, the concentrations may be expressed as extractable 

amounts that are soluble in a specified solvent. Such 

extractable quantities will vary depending on the solvent 

used and the strength of that solvent. Extractable 

quantities are of principal interest to the agricultural 

worker (Brewer, 1966, p. 216) because of efforts to equate 

extractable with "available" quantities for given plant 

species.

The objective in this report is to examine the soil as a 

natural reservoir of lead. Therefore, total concentrations 

are given here because they indicate the potential ability of 

the soil to supply lead (Mitchell, 1964, p. 331). In contrast,

the actual availability, as estimated by extractable 

amounts, depends on the interaction of many locally 

variable factors.

Average values are commonly expressed by either the 

arithmetic mean or the geometric mean. The familiar 

arithmetic mean is the sum of the values divided by the 

number of values. However, frequency distributions of 

trace-element concentrations in soils tend to be more 

nearly symmetrical on a logarithmic scale; therefore, a 

logarithmic transformation is appropriate. The best 

estimate of the most typical value in a log-normal distribution is given by the geometric mean, which is the antir 

logarithm of the arithmetic mean of the log values 

(Miesch, 1967, p. B1-B2). The arithmetic mean will always 

be greater than the geometric mean. Many authors fail to 

identify which kind of mean they have used; therefore, the 

arithmetic mean is assumed to have been used in the 

literature cited in this report.

CHEMISTRY OF LEAD IN SOILS

The migration and ultimate distribution of lead within 

the soil result from combinations of factors that include 

chemical processes such as oxidation and reduction 

reactions, adsorption of cations on the exchange complex, 

chelation by organic matter and by other metal oxides, and 

cycling by vegetation. Most of these processes are in turn 

influenced by the regional factors involved in soil 

formation climate, biota, topography, and, especially, 

parent material, all operating through time (Jenny, 1941).

Entrapment is one form in which lead occurs in the soil. 

A study of the soils in Bulgaria, for instance, showed that 

most of the lead occurred as inclusions in iron and 

aluminum hydroxides and in calcium carbonate 

(lordanov and Pavlova, 1963). A small amount of lead was 

also present as pyromorphite (Pb5Cl(PO4 )3 ).

Lead tends to associate with the soil minerals in other 

ways as well. Lead is presumed to be adsorbed readily onto 

the exchange complex of clay minerals and is replaced 

only with difficulty (Mitchell, 1964, p. 337). Divalent lead 

should be adsorbed more strongly than monovalent 

potassium which has a similar ionic size (Goldschmidt, 

1954, p. 402). The enrichment of lead in the B horizons of

43
44 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

some soils has been attributed in part to the presence of 

excess clay (Presant, 1971, p. 57). Lead also associates with 

amorphous iron sesquioxide and to a lesser extent with 

aluminum sesquioxide (Mitchell, 1964, p. 337). Although 

he did not specifically study lead, Jenne (1968) found that 

hydrous manganese and iron oxides play a predominant 

role in controlling the fixation of several heavy metals in 

the transition series. The sesquioxides and hydrous oxides 

may occur as surface coatings on particles of all sizes and, 

therefore, can exert an influence that is out of proportion 

to their concentration. Lead was found concentrated in 

that portion of the soil that was soluble in acidified 

hydrogen peroxide (Taylor and McKenzie, 1966). The 

soluble portion includes manganese minerals, organic 

matter, and other soluble minerals and salts. Presant 

(1971) found lead associated with free iron oxides in the B 

horizons of New Brunswick soils, but the correlation 

coefficient was not significant.

In general, most metals tend to be more available under 

acid conditions than under alkaline conditions (Hodgson, 

1963, p. 141-144). In one study, plants grown in soils to 

which lead had been added took up more lead from acid 

soils than alkaline soils, but the effect was confounded 

somewhat by differing amounts of organic matter 

(MacLean and others, 1969). A summary of the composition of soils from Wisconsin, shown in table 15, suggests 

that greater total amounts of lead are found in the more 

alkaline soils; the pH-dependent stability of metal organic 

chelates may aid in explaining this distribution. Presant 

(1971) found negative correlations between total lead and 

pH in all soil horizons except the A2 horizon. The effect of 

pH may be the indirect consequence of microbiological 

activity which in turn controls the oxidation and reduction of iron and manganese (Hodgson, 1963, p. 146). 

Studies of the distribution of the heavy metals within the 

soil profile based on pH alone may fail to give consistent 

results. Instead, the sorption-desorption exchange process 

should be viewed in terms of both the Eh and pH of the 

soil-water system, (Jenne, 1968, p. 342).

The movement of metals during the weathering process 

by means of organic chelating agents is another important

TABLE 15. Lead concentrations in residual soils from Wisconsin,

grouped according to pH 

[Data from computer storage of the U.S. Geological Survey; samples collected by H.

T. Shacklette; spectrographic analysis by J. C. Hamilton; lower limit of detection

10 ppm. Means and deviations calculated according to methods of Miesch (1967).

Detection ratio, the number of samples containing detectable concentrations versus

the number of samples examined]

Lead concentration

Less than 6.5

6.5-7.5

Greater than 7.5

Detection

ratio

105:133

155:168

52:57

Geometric mean

(ppm)

17

21

31

Geometric

deviation

1.84

2.21

2.73

process in the chemistry of lead in soil. The following discussion is based on a review of these processes by Pauli 

(1966). The creation of organic chelating agents by 

biologic activity serves as one of the most effective 

processes of metal mobilization. These agents are either 

plant products, microbial metabolites, or humic 

compounds. The humic compounds, also known as 

humic acids (Drozdova, 1968), are three-dimensional, 

interlinked, aromatic polymers that result from the 

reaction of heteropolycondensation. This reaction splits 

simpler compounds and reconstitutes them into a more 

complex heteropolycondensate (polymer), some units of 

which are possibly linked together (chelated) by heavy 

metal cations. As the molecular weight of the polymer is 

build up through additional polycondensation, a 

complex lattice structure with diverse interconnections is 

developed. Thus cations, molecules, and even mineral 

particles may be enmeshed within a protective "cage." 

Clay minerals, especially those encrusted with iron oxides 

and hydroxides, adsorb the polymers, and even 

accommodate the smaller molecules in interlayer 

positions.

Metals initially become chelated according to their susceptibility, competition from other metals present, and the 

nature of the complexing agent. The continued fixation of 

the metal ion depends on the stability of the polymer and 

its ability to resist the forces of degradation. The metal 

binding force generally diminishes with increasing 

acidity, as we have seen. Experiments with calciumhumate and kaolin showed that lead was held by both substances at pH 5 but was released completely at pH 1.5 

(lordanov and Pavlova, 1963). Further, the complex 

polymers are more resistant to microbial attack than the 

simpler organic compounds. Gate (1959) suggests that the 

metal ions might be released from the polymer by an autocatalytic decomposition process. He speculates that in the 

podzolization process, lead is cycled to the ground surface 

by vegetation, is complexed by the humic polymers, is 

translocated down in the profile, and finally, is released for 

subsequent precipitation at the lower depth. Gate's model 

may approximate reality but it apparently fails to account 

for the lack of abundant movement of lead in weathering 

profiles.

Finally, the amounts and types of organic matter 

present appear to provide an important control on the 

movement of heavy-metal ions in soil systems. Evidence 

that suggests the importance of organic matter is 

summarized (Jenne, 1968, p. 340) into four categories: (1) 

known chelating ability of both synthetic and natural 

organics, (2) ability of plant material extracts to leach 

metals from soil material, (3) positive correlation found 

between concentrations of metal and organic matter of the 

soil, and (4) release of metals during oxidation treatment 

of organic matter by hydrogen peroxide. The association 

of lead and organic matter is not always empirically
LEAD IN SOILS 45

consistent however. For example, the results in table 20 for 

tropical soils show no apparent lead-organic matter 

relationship.

INFLUENCE OF PARENT MATERIAL

Parent material has been recognized in some cases as a 

fundamental control on the concentration of lead in the 

soil (SwaineandMitchell, 1960; Hodgson, 1963; Mitchell, 

1964, p. 321; Fleming and others, 1968) and, among the 

various regional factors in soil formation, it thus deserves 

special attention. The lead concentration of immature 

soils tends to be correlated directly with its concentration 

in the parent material. Thus most of the averages reported 

for lead in soils are similar to the average concentration of 

16 ppm (Goldschmidt, 1954, p. 398) of lead in the Earth's 

upper lithosphere. As weathering progresses to a more 

advanced stage, other pedogenic factors may modify the 

distribution of lead within the soil profile (Wells, 1960; 

Tiller, 1963).

DISTRIBUTION OF LEAD IN SOILS

An extensive review of the literature on the lead concentration in soils was given by Swaine (1955, p. 83-87). In 

most soils from nonmineralized areas, concentrations 

range from 2 to 200 ppm. Average concentrations in these 

soils are generally between 5 and 25 ppm. Vinogradov 

(1959, p. 155-157) reported an average of 1Q ppm lead in 

Russian zonal soils (see table 16); these results compared 

well with data from the literature, which were generally in 

the range of 10-50 ppm. Other selected summary statistics

from the literature and unpublished data of the U.S. 

Geological Survey are shown in table 16. Typical 

concentrations of lead in topsoils range from 10 to 30 ppm.

The concentration of lead in selected Scottish soils 

developed in a cool humid climate is shown in table 17 

(Swaine and Mitchell, 1960). The higher concentrations of 

lead appear to be associated with granitic parent material.

Unpublished data from files of the U.S. Geological 

Survey, which are summarized in table 18, indicate no 

important differences between the concentration of lead in 

the parent material and that in the soil. Other data given in 

tables 19, 20, and 21 illustrate a range of lead concentrations in soils developed from different parent materials. 

The majority of values are less than 50 ppm and often less 

than 30 ppm. In general, the results are inconclusive in 

establishing soil/parent material relationships, because 

the natural variations in parent-material composition 

probably include the range of lead values observed among 

the soils. Further investigation in particular localities of 

interest to determine the magnitude of variation in both 

the soils and the parent material is necessary before 

meaningful relationships can be recognized.

The trace-element relationship between soil and parent 

material, if it exists, should permit prediction of the 

composition of the one from knowledge of the other. 

Oertel (1961) concluded on the basis of soils from Australia 

and Tasmania that such a prediction could not be satisfactorily reached; that is, a linear equation failed to 

describe the relationships accurately. However, a similar 

study of selected Belgian soils by Prabhakaran Nair and

TABLE 16. Lead concentrations in selected soils developed under a variety of soil-forming factors

[Leaders (...) indicate no data]

Same description

Number of

samples Minimum

Range (ppm) Mean (ppm) 1 Deviation Source of data

Maximum

Finland, soils from moraine, sand, silt, clay, and peat

Tarta and Mariisk regions, U.S.S.R., soils

Eastern European plain, soils, A horizon

Kazakhstan region, U.S.S.R., desert soils,

humus horizon

Kazakhstan region, U.S.S.R., salinized soils,

humus horizon

Westfalen-Lippe, Federal Republic of Germany,

agricultural soils

Westfalen-Lippe, Federal Republic of Germany,

grassland soils

Dahomey, (Africa), tropical topsoils

People's Republic of China, soils

Novosibirsk region, U.S.S.R., soils

U.S.S.R., gray forest soils

New Brunswick, Canada, podzol soils, A horizon

Kox'vinskii (Kamen region, U.S.S.R., alpine

soils, humus horizons

Silesia, Poland, topsoils

Missouri, U.S.A., subsoils under cedar trees,

off road

Wisconsin, U.S.A., soils

Kentucky, U.S.A., red-yellow podzolic soils,

A horizons

"is

20

6

5

111

43

25

53

94

16

422

96

4

<10

15

12

3

ib

10

<10

<7

"so

43

68

79

23 "so

45

>ibbo

96

16

2 i'o 2 ±i

11

10

30

34

"26 !

"is '.

100

328

3 15

.... Vuorinen (1958).

Borisova (1959).

8 Vinogradov (1959).

Dobrovol'skiy (1960).

Do.

.... Balks (1961).

Do.

... Pinta and Ollat (1961).

Fang, Sung, and Bing (1963).

Viller and Khrapov

... Akhtyrtsev (1965).

(1963).

Presant and Tupper (1965).

... Mikhailova and Mikhailov (1967).

... Roszyk (1968).

Connor and others (1971).

3 24 3 ?2.60 H.T.Shacklette(unpub. data, 1972).

3 14 3 *1.51 Connor and others (1976).

"Arithmetic mean assumed unless otherwise noted.

2Arithmetic mean and standard deviation estimated by methods described by Miesch (1967).

"Geometric mean and geometric deviation estimated by methods described by Miesch (1967).
46 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Cottenie (1971) reached just the opposite conclusion. The 

accuracy of prediction improved by grouping the soils 

within taxonomic classes.

TABLE 17. Lead concentrations (in ppm) in selected Scottish soils 

developed from different parent materials

[Data from Swaine and Mitchell (1960). Soil profile averages calculated by weighting 

each horizon according to thickness]

Parent material Soil Pb

Igneous: 

Serpentine till 12 

Olivine gabbro 13 

Andesitic moraine 18 

Granitic till 25

Metamorphic: 

Granitic gneiss 42 

Quartz-mica schist till 54 

Slate 18

Sedimentary: 

Sandstone till 12

TABLE 18. Mean concentrations of lead in selected parent material 

types and derivative soils

[Unpublished data of the U.S. Geological Survey. Statistics calculated according to Miesch 

(1967). Leaders (...) indicate insufficient data for calculation. Detection ratio, the number 

of samples containing detectable concentrations versus the number of samples examined]

Range (ppm) _ . _ B ^ Geometric Geometric

ratio Minimum Maximum mean (ppm) deviation

Cambrian and Lower Ordovician rock, western craton, western United States 1

Sandstone: 

Soil 33:80 <20 130 16 52.23 

Parent material 3:80 < 20 36 <20 ......

Shale: 

Soil 28:72 <20 870 12 23.45 

Parent material 28:72 <20 1,300 12 53.33

Carbonate: 

Soil 25:76 <20 350 11 54.07 

Parent material 12:76 <20 120 <20 '......

Nonmineralized areas of Kentucky, Missouri, and Wisconsin2

Sandstone, siltstone, 

and quartzite: 

Soil 38:52 <10 30 11 5 1.62 

Parent material 6:11 <10 50 9 52.45

Dolomite: 

Soil 37:38 <10 70 15 51.90 

Parent material 11:16 <10 70 13 52.33

Limestone: 

Soil 27:27 15 50 23 5].43 

Parent material 5:8 <10 20 9 51.56

Granite, rhyolite: 

Soil 12:12 10 70 18 52.25 

Parent material 6:6 15 50 25 51.75

'Collected by A. T. Miesch and J. J. Connor; analyzed on direct reader spectrograph 

t>y R. G. Havens; lower limit of detection, 20 ppm. Soil samples from surface horizon. 

'Collected by H. T. Shacklette; semiquantitative spectrographic analysis by J. C. Hamilton; 

lower limit of detection, 10 ppm. Soil values based on averages of samples from all 

horizons.

TABLE 19 Lead concentrations in tropical soils developed on different 

parent materials

[Data from Nalovic and Pinta (1969). Leaders (...) indicate no data]

Parent material Soil type Pb (ppm)

Igneous: 

Basic rocks Ferruginous 88.0 

Basalt Ferrallitic 17.5 

Granite do...................... 40.0

Acid rocks do...................... 14.0

Volcanic ash do...................... 9.0

Metamorphic: 

Marble do...................... 19.0

Gneiss do...................... 40.0

Schist Ferruginous 22.0

Sedimentary: 

Limestone Ferrallitic 41 .0 

Ferruginous 21.0 

Sandstone do...................... 20.0

TABLE 20. Distribution of lead concentration and organic matter in 

soil profiles from the tropical climatic zone

Parent material Soil depth Organic matter Soil Pb 

and soil type (cm) (percent) (ppm)

Dahomey, Africa (Pinta and Ollat, 1961)

Clay 0-10 3.0 23 

(ferrallitic soil) 40-60 .8 20 

180-190 .3 27

Unknown 0-20 1.0 9 

(ferruginous soil) 40-60 .6 11

80-100 .6 14

Tertiary sediments 0-15 2.3 15 

(ferrallitic soil) 20-30 .6 20 

80-90 .4 22 

375-385 .2 20

Madagascar (Nalovic and Pinta, 1969)

Marble (red-brown 0-18 8.2 21 

(ferrallitic soil) 18-40 4.3 17 

40-85 .2 23 

85-130 .2 18 

130-280 .1 14

Calcareous material 0-15 1.1 24 

(ferruginous soil) 15-200 .3 20 

200-240 .3 24 

>240 .1 18

Alluvium 0-40 1.2 19 

40-110 .2 19 

110-320 .2 22 

320-350 .2 19 

>350 .2 23

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF LEAD IN SOILS 

OF THE UNITED STATES

The distribution of lead concentration in soils and other 

surficial materials at 964 sites throughout the United 

States is shown in figure 8. The symbols on the map 

represent concentrations within selected frequency classes 

as shown in the accompanying histogram. The distribution map is modified from Shaklette, Hamilton,
LEAD IN SOILS 47

TABLE 21. Distribution of lead concentration in soil profiles from 

the temperate climatic zone

Parent material Soil depth or horizon

Wales (Archer, 1963)

Dolerite 

Pumice tuff

Rhyolite

Mixed glacial drift

Depth (cm) 

0-5

5-18 

18-46

0-5

5-15

15-23

23-30

0-10 

10-25

0-5 

5-41

Ireland (Fleming and others, 1968)

New Brunswick, Canada (Presant and Tnpper, 1965) 1

Mixed parent materials 

(nonmineralized terrain)

Horizon

L-H

Ae 

B, 

B2 

C

Wisconsin (unpub. data, U.S. Geological Survey2

Mixed parent materials 

(nonmineralized terrain)

Horizon

A 

B 

C

Soil Pb (ppm)

150

100

100

80

20

8

25

180

60

200

100

Granite

(Brown podzolic soil)

Shale

(Brown podzolic soil)

Limestone

(Gray-brown podzolic soil)

Peat over granite

Horizon

Ap

B,

B2

C

A,

B2

C

Ai

A2

B2t

C

Depth (cm}

0-8

8-20

20-41

41-46

Bedrock

25

20

20

25

25

10

15

45

60

50

50

120

30

3

11

20

73

13

36

28

65

24

14

22

'Average (arithmetic?) lead in each horizon computed from 53 podzol profiles.

2Samples collected by H. T. Shacklette; analyses by J. C. Hamilton. Geometric means 

are estimated from a number of soil samples, as follows: A, 146 samples (no lead detected 

in 11 samples); B, 70 samples (no lead detected in 17 samples): C, 97 samples (no lead 

detected in 20 samples).

Boerngen, and Bowles (1971) with 101 additional sample 

values added. The sampling sites were located at approximately 50-mile intervals, and samples were collected either 

along highways or within various geologic study areas. 

There is some risk that the distribution shown has been

modified by lead fallout along the highways. However, 

collectors were asked to select quiet rural roads if possible, 

to avoid roadcuts or fills, to move away from the roadside, 

and to sample at a depth of about 8 inches (20 cm). Studies 

in the vicinity of highways show that the amount of lead 

decreases very sharply within the first 6 inches (15 cm) 

depth of soil (Lagerwerff and Specht, 1970; Motto and 

others, 1970). Thus, the risk of modification by fallout is 

believed to be minimal. The reader should avoid 

inferences about any single value, but rather examine only 

patterns of larger regions.

The largest regional patterns examined by Shacklette 

and others (1971) were "eastern" soils versus "western" 

soils. This division between east and west was established 

along the 97th meridian because that was the approximate boundary between Marbut's (1935) pedocals of the 

west and pedalfers of the east. 1 It also corresponds approximately to the division between moist soils of the east and 

dry soils of the west (U.S. Geological Survey, 1970, p. 86). 

The mean lead concentration in eastern soil samples is 14 

ppm as compared with 18 ppm for western soil samples. 

Although the difference is small, it appears to reflect a real 

difference in the background lead content of soils of the 

two regions (statistically significant at the 95 percent 

confidence level).

The histogram in figure 8 shows that about 94 percent of 

the samples have lead concentrations that are equal to or 

less than 30 ppm. About 58 percent of the samples have 

concentrations equal to or less than the mean of 16 ppm. 

Thus, most of the sample sites across the country are 

typified by concentrations of 15-30 ppm, with few distinctive local geographic variations. Regions having many 

sites with lead concentrations below average include the 

Atlantic Coastal Plain and Gulf Coastal Plain from North 

Carolina to Texas, the High Plains of west Texas and 

southeastern New Mexico, the Lake States of Michigan, 

Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and parts of the northern 

Great Plains, particularly the Sand Hills of Nebraska. 

There were even fewer regional instances of above-average 

concentrations, although most of the sites in Colorado 

exhibit above-average lead concentrations: four samples 

with concentrations of 100 ppm were collected in the 

western half of Colorado. Otherwise, high concentrations 

in the range of 100-700 ppm are found only at widely scattered and isolated sites in the United States.

The distribution of lead in soil has been studied in detail 

in Missouri, which has large lead deposits and a wellestablished lead mining industry. Samples of agricultural 

soils were collected extensively throughout the State from 

the surface horizon (0-6 in. (0-15 cm) depth), through the

'Pedocal and pedalfer are Marbut's terms for mature soils with and without a lime horizon, 

respectively.
48 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

48'

46'

44'

42

40

38°

36

34°

32°

30°

28°

26°

24°

22°

128° 126° 124° 122° 120° 118° 116° 114° 112° 110° 108° 106° 104° 102° 100° 98' ~i 1 i T i i i r i i j i i i i r 96 e

® «0 

« O

Tri '

w °l<* \

9 9 /* >,

O

e 9

O * /

3

o %

o e

9 9

x, ^ r- 

 « -cr-%

"1

0<*» Jl 

 .« J

Q Q ®Q I 

9 ^ j 

 /

<? 9 9

O

T

e 

 ---a_.

-»- '

-9 «r~-^"'. 

.« ^ . ----,

/ e .V

 .^ e 9

9

O

' : ' ;-.J 

® o0 *e.4 33» 9

w T «

-0.,

9 V.

* !

® ei9

,« r

 " i ° e *" *e "*v*/> *J^-'

^ % V»« e f *eo e S»,e * e3"*"? * * e e '£ 

 (C V e/ 0 00 I ». « L _________ A

V* »^x» ° .i « > ! » \ ^ I * « I « ? ' '

a ,\*« / e' .* . I ^ V\»." /.. . *° . * * !

East of 97° long----428

West of 97° long - - - - 536

Tota|.........-964

J- 118' 116' 114' 112' 110' 108' 106° 104 C 102' 100' 98° 96°

FIGURE 8. Distribution of lead in soils and other surficial materials at 964 sites throughout the United States. Symbols correspond 

Map adapted from Shacklette, Hamilton, Boerngen, and Bowles (1971), supplemented with an additional 101 sites, data courtesy 

Neiman.
96' 94' 92' ~T 90° 88" 86' 84 <

LEAD IN SOILS

82° 80° 78° 76' 74' 

T

72' ~T

70 e ~T68' 66' 64'

49

48 C

46'

44'

42 C

40 e

38 C

36'

34'

32'

30°

28'

26'

24'

22'

T T

100i200

I

300 400

_I

I I I I I I

0 100 200 300 400 500 KILOMETRES

§

0000 in o o o

i- «- «- CM roif>r~«-«-cNcom 

V

LEAD, IN PARTS PER MILLION

96' 94' 92' 90° 88' 86 ' 84' 82' 80° 78 C 76' 74'

to classes of lead concentration as shown on histogram. Location of the symbol is approximately at the point of sample collection, 

of H. T. Shacklette. Semiquantitative spectrographic analysis in U.S. Geological Survey laboratories by J. C. Hamilton and H.G.
50 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

cooperation of Missouri farmers and the Extension 

Division of the University of Missouri. Ten samples were 

collected in each of the 114 counties of the State. The 

samples were analyzed semiquantitatively for 45 elements 

by emission spectrograph (Myers and others, 1961). The 

lower limit of determination for lead by this method is 10 

ppm.

The distribution of lead revealed by the analyses is 

generalized in figure 9, and is adapted from a more detailed 

distribution map by Tidball (1972, p. 39). The inclusion of 

a few high lead values from the lead mining districts 

results in an estimate of the mean of Missouri soils of 20

EXPLANATION

LEAD, IN PARTS 

PER MILLION

15-30 

30-70 

70-7,000 

Lead-belt district 

° Southern limit of 

glaciation

T 

50

100

I

150 MILES

500-,

D250-

100 150 KILOMETRES

1,140 samples

Arithmetic mean (estimated) =22 

Geometric mean = 20 

Geometric deviation =1.6

T- .- CN

«- «- CN

LEAD, IN PARTS PER MILLION

FIGURE 9. Histogram showing lead concentrations in Missouri soil 

samples and map showing general distribution throughout the State. 

Physical divisions from Fenneman (1946); mining district from 

Kiilsgaard, Hayes, and Heyl (1967); statistics calculated according 

toMiesch (1967).

ppm as compared to the mean for eastern United States 

soils of 14 ppm (fig. 8).

The highest lead concentrations were found in soils in 

the southeast Missouri lead belt. These values may 

represent either natural occurrences of lead in the soil or 

aritifical occurrences resulting from mining activity. 

Some highly anomalous samples, ranging in concentration from 700 to 7,000 ppm and collected from agricultural fields on the flood plain of Big River, are believed 

to reflect the mineralized zone. Upstream from the sample 

sites Big River flows through the center of the mining 

district that has produced more than 90 percent of the lead 

ores mined in southeast Missouri since the deposits were 

discovered in the area in 1701 (Kiilsgaard and others, 1967, 

p. 50). Other samples with lead concentrations ranging 

from 50 to 150 ppm were obtained from uplands within 

the lead-belt areas and may reflect conditions less 

influenced by mining activity.

The Big River flood-plain samples also contain 

anomalous concentrations of barium which are believed 

to originate from important near-surface barite deposits 

that are located just northwest of the lead belt. Numerous 

small barite deposits also occur along the northern flank 

of the Ozark Plateaus. These deposits have accessory galena 

(lead sulfide) which may explain the band of aboveaverage lead values occurring in the soils of this area. 

Other mining districts in southwest Missouri have not 

been clearly delineated by the soil samples.

Below-average concentrations of lead were found in two 

large areas of the State, as shown in figure 9. One of the 

areas in northwest Missouri is associated with prominent 

surfical deposits of glacial material that at one time 

probably covered the entire landscape, but subsequent 

erosion has exposed the underlying rock in many places. 

From 67 to 100 percent of the land is covered with loess in 

deposits ranging in depth from 4 feet (1 m) to more than 32 

feet (10 m) (National Research Council, 1952). The 

average (geometric mean) concentration of lead in loess in 

the bluffs along the Missouri River in this area in northwest Missouri was estimated to be 15 ppm (Connor and 

Ebens, 1972, p. 12; R. J. Ebens, oral commun., 1971).

The second area of low-lead soils is in southeast 

Missouri and comprises the Mississippi Alluvial Plain 

and the central part of the Ozark Plateaus. Soils on the 

alluvial plain area are developed on alluvial materials of 

both Tertiary and Quaternary ages. Soils of the Ozark 

Plateaus area are on a very old landscape being developed 

from highly weathered residuum of carbonate rocks of 

Cambrian and Ordovician ages. These soils tend to have 

below-average concentrations of numerous trace elements 

in additon to lead.

The remainder of the soils sampled throughout a wide 

part of the State are characterized by near-average concentrations of lead that range from about 15 to 30 ppm. Most
LEAD IN SOILS 51

of this area exhibits considerable local variation within 

this midrange of lead concentration.

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52 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

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LEAD IN VEGETATION

By H. L. CANNON

Lead occurs naturally in small amounts in all plants, 

but the average concentration of lead in vegetation in 

highly populated countries has risen in the last several 

decades owing to man's activities. Because of this 

contamination from artificial lead, it is important that 

information on lead concentrations in plants be documented as to both date of collection and location with 

respect to sources of manmade lead. Information from 

primitive areas on lead in vegetation is therefore of prime 

value and should be collated and preserved. Only by 

comparison with such information can the effects of 

present-day contamination be properly assessed. Finally, 

averages for lead contents in vegetation are affected by 

natural variation in and among plants owing to 

differences in seasonal uptake, species, parts of the plant, 

and lead concentrations in the substrate.

THE BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING OF LEAD

Bormann and Likens (1967) have pointed out that in the 

biological community the vertical extensions of the 

terrestrial ecosystem will be delimited by the top of the 

vegetation and by the depth to which roots penetrate into 

the regolith, and that the terrestrial ecosystem participates 

in the various larger biogeochemical cycles of the earth 

through a system of inputs and outputs. Thus, if we 

consider the geologic input, the weathering of the rocks 

will provide to the soil both elements incorporated in 

primary and secondary minerals and soluble ions that may 

be dissolved in the soil solution or adsorbed on the clayhumus complex. The degree of accumulation or loss in the 

ecosystem will vary with the response of a particular 

element to erosion and weathering. MacLean, Halstead, 

and Finn (1969) studied the uptake of lead by oats and 

alfalfa in soils with different levels of lead chloride, 

organic matter, and pH. They found that low humus 

content and high acidity of the soil increase lead uptake.

Lead, although not readily soluble, is absorbed by 

plants and stored in woody tissue to a considerable degree. 

An unpublished study of the uptake of lead by native 

plants and vegetables growing on various rock types in 

Hagerstown valley, Maryland, made by the author in

1958-59, suggests that there is a buildup of lead in the 

terrestrial ecosystem, inasmuch as median values increase 

from 11 ppm in rocks to 33 ppm in residual soils to 93 ppm 

in the ash of native vegetation in this particular area. 

Unfortunately at that time no consideration was given to 

the possibility of atmospheric lead, and the higher values 

in soils and vegetation probably reflect contamination 

from car exhaust. A similar progressive increase from 

rocks to vegetation was found by Lounamaa (1956), who 

studied native vegetation on various rock types in 

Finland and found lead to be concentrated in twigs and 

roots. Elsewhere, native vegetation and soils, largely on 

sandstone from the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico, 

were collected by the author in 1961 and 1962 using the 

same collection methods as those used in Maryland, but at 

sites considerably more remote from roads. Analyses 

showed a mean concentration of 20 ppm lead and a range 

of 5-700 ppm in the ash of 101 native plants that were 

rooted in soils having a mean of 18 ppm lead and a range of 

only 10-20 ppm. In both Maryland and New Mexico, the 

leaves of deciduous trees and the two most recent years of 

twig growth and needles of conifers were collected. The 

vastly different means of lead in plant ash from New 

Mexico (20 ppm) and from Maryland (93 ppm) are further 

interpreted to suggest the possibility of atmospheric 

contamination in the relatively more populated area of 

Maryland. A comparison of the cycling of lead from soil to 

tree leaves to humus for uncontaminated and contaminated areas is given in table 22.

The data suggest that lead is not concentrated in the 

humus under ordinary conditions, but that in areas of 

mining and smelting lead contamination of the humus 

and soil is largely unavailable to the vegetation or is held 

in the root and is not translocated to the upper portions of 

the plant to any appreciable degree.

Bolter and others (1972) made a more recent study of the 

cycling of lead in the so-called Viburnum Trend, or New 

Lead Belt, in southeastern Missouri. Several hundred soil 

and vegetation samples were collected and analyzed to 

delineate areas of anomalous high concentrations caused 

by the mining and smelting activity. Elevated heavy metal

53
54 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 22. Cycling of lead in different environments 

[Leaders (...) indicate no data]

Pb (ppm)

Source Leaves Roots 

(in ash) (in ash)

Soil horizons

Uncontaminated ground

Jefferson County, Colo.

(on schist; K mi (1 km) from road):

Populus tremuloides (aspen). .............

Acer glabrum (maple).........................

Pinus ponderosa (pine) ......................

Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Douglas-fir) ...

Washington County, Md. 

(on Limestone; 200 ft (60 m) from road):

Carya cordiformis (hickory) ...............

Carya ovata (hickory).........................

Fraxinus americana (ash)...................

65

50

200

200

100

200

150

35

100

150

60

50

30

50

50

20

30

15

70

30

30

30

30

20

15

20

30

20

20

Cedar County, Mo. 

(on limestone):

Juniperus virginiana (cedar). 

Quercus stellata (oak)............

140

40

Contaminated ground

2,000

1,290

Joplin, Mo.

(contamination by drainage from mines): 

Betula nigra (birch)............................ 340 1,600 1,700

Quercus muhlenbergia (oak).............. 150 ...... 3,200

Bartlesville, Okla.

(contamination from smelter): 

Populus deltoides (poplar)................. 120 ...... 2,500 2,500

Alliumporrum (onions)..................... .... 200 1,000 125

Asparagus officinalis (asparagus)....... 25 ...... 1,000 125

concentrations in soils were found to be mainly restricted 

to the humus and to the A horizons. A large part of the lead 

found in samples of leaves of vegetation was thought to be 

lead present on the surface of the leaves.

BACKGROUND LEAD CONCENTRATIONS IN 

VEGETATION

Before manmade contamination can be evaluated or the 

effect of mineralized ground appraised, the normal 

concentrations of lead that might be expected in various 

types of vegetation must be determined in samples from 

primitive areas with no manmade contamination and 

from results of sampling many years ago before manmade 

contamination had occurred. Warren and Delavault (1962) 

proposed, on the basis of analyses of uncontaminated 

Canadian plants, that the normal lead content of the twigs 

of trees be considered as 2.5 ppm in the dry weight and 50 

ppm in the ash. They also suggested that the normal lead 

content of vegetables and cereal grains, which absorb less 

lead than trees, be taken as ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 ppm in 

the dry weight and from 2 to 20 ppm in the ash. Mitchell 

(1963) reported that in spring and summer pasture herbage 

normally contains less than 1 ppm lead in the dry weight, 

but that in autumn and winter it may contain several times 

this level.

However, unless the samples are collected from ground 

known to be unmineralized and are carefully screened to 

exclude any possibility of manmade contamination, a few

very high values will unduly raise the arithmetic mean. 

For this reason, a better measure of the expected "normal" 

value is the median concentration, as has been calculated 

for various classes of natural vegetation and given in table 

23.

The lead medians for 193 deciduous tree tips (all from 

paloverde trees) and 131 leaves and stems (mostly from 

creosotebush) are considerably higher than values for 

other plants and may represent greater absorption of lead 

by these species. Large concentrations of lead are found in 

lichens and mosses, which are very slow growing. The 

normal levels of lead in garden vegetables are more difficult to establish, inasmuch as they are generally grown 

only in populated areas that are subject to airborne pollution and contamination from sprays. The results of 

analyses for lead in vegetables have been studied most 

intensively by H. V. Warren of British Columbia (Warren, 

1972; Warren and Dela vault, 1971). Median values from 

his data and those from Kehoe (1961) are given in table 24. 

A concentrated effort has recently been made by Warren 

(1972) to determine the "normal" (presumably median) 

concentrations of lead and other metals in vegetables. He 

concluded that variations in trace-element content of 

vegetables of both urban and rural areas are greater than 

have been generally realized and suggested a normal range 

for lead of 16-40 ppm in the ash or 1.6-2.0 ppm in the dry 

weight. These values are twice those he suggested earlier 

(Warren, 1961).

Median values for lead in vegetables that I collected in 

1961-63 in New York, Maryland, and New Mexico are also 

shown in table 24. In many of the samples the amounts of 

lead were below the limit of detection by the spectrographic method used. All the samples of beet tops and 

onions and most of the cabbage samples had 10 ppm or 

more lead in the ash. The median lead in the dry weight of 

111 vegetables was <1.3 ppm and that of 16 fruits about 

0.25 ppm. One hundred vegetables collected by H. T. 

Shacklette in 1961 (written commun., 1961) from driftless 

and drift-covered areas in Wisconsin, Iowa, and 

Minnesota were analyzed colorimetrically by a method 

having a lower limit of detection of 25 ppm for lead in the 

ash. These vegetables were found to contain about 25 ppm 

lead in the ash or 1.3 ppm lead in the dry weight (table 24). 

A few of his samples were undoubtedly collected from 

mineralized ground. Both sets of values are lower than 

those reported by Warren (1972), but correspond rather 

well with those reported by Kehoe (1961) and suggested by 

Warren and Delavault (1962). The possibility must be kept 

in mind that many of Warren's (1972) samples from Great 

Britain were collected from Wales, where background lead 

in the soils and vegetation is considerably higher than 

normal, because of long-continued lead mining activities 

that have contaminated the valley alluvium and port-city 

soils with lead.
LEAD IN VEGETATION 

TABLE 23. Normal lead concentrations in various classes of vegetation

[Leaders (...) indicate no data]

55

Median (ppm)

of Ash Dry 

samples weight

Range (ppm)

Ash Dry 

weight

Conifer trees

Western United States 20 Tips................ 50 1.8

(wilderness areas).

Finland.................................... 83 Needles........... 30

30- 300 1 -10 H. L. Cannon (this paper). 

8- 74 ......... Warren and Delavault (1960).

<10-1,000 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

Deciduous- trees

Western United States 193 Tips................ 36 2.5

(wilderness areas). 

168 Stems.............. 12 1.0

178 Leaves............. 14.4 1.7

Finland.................................... 97 Leaves............. 30

Sussex, England...................... 4 ........................ 30 1.0

5- 150 0.27- 13.0 M. A. Chaffee and H.L. Cannon (this paper).

2- 50 .16- 4.0 Do. 

5- 70 <.61- 9.1 Do. 

11- 53 ......... Warren and Delavault (1960).

<10-1,000 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

7- 50 .4- 2.0 Warren (1972).

Shrubs

Western United States 131 Leaves............. 60 4.9

(wilderness areas). 

56 Tips................ 21 1.8

110 Stems.............. 41 2.1

Finland.................................... 48 Tips................ 30

7- 100 0.57- 8.2 M. A. Chaffee and H.L. Cannon (this paper).

7- 70 .57- 4.3 Do. 

7- 100 .57- 8.2 Do. 

7- 46 ......... Warren and Delavault (1960).

<10- 300 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

Herbs

Finland.................................... 50 ........................ ...... 1.8

205 Leaves............. 10

......... <1.2- 3.0 Fletcher and Brink (1969).

<10- 100 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

Grasses

British Columbia.................... 20 ........................ ...... 1.8

Western United States 226 Above ground. 27 

Western United States 15 do ............ 20 1.6

(wilderness areas). 

Finland.................................... 26 do ............ 30

......... <1.2- 3.6 Fletcher and Brink (1969).

<20- 480 ......... A. T. Miesch (written commun., 1970).

<10- 70 < .8- 5.6 H. L. Cannon (this paper). 

<10- 300 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

Lichens

Finland.................................... 59 Entire.............. 1,000

Colorado.................................. 10 do ............ 1,000 81

30-6,000 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

300-1,500 12.3-150.0 LeRoy and Koksoy (1962).

Mosses

Finland.................................... 16 Entire.............. 100 <10-6,000 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

Fems

Finland.................................... 93 Fronds ............ 30

SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN LEAD 

CONCENTRATIONS

The seasonal variation in the chemical composition of 

plants has been reported by many workers, but few studies 

have included the element lead. Guha and Mitchell (1966), 

however, studied seasonal variations of lead in three 

deciduous trees. They reported that concentrations in the 

dry weight of leaves decreased from May to June, owing to 

dilution from rapid growth, reached a maximum in midSeptember, then decreased slightly in October, a pattern

<10- 600 ......... Lounamaa (1956).

which suggests a back translocation of lead into the twig. 

Concentrations in the petiole, blade, and inflorescence of 

sycamore are shown in table 25. Current studies in greater 

detail (R. L. Mitchell, oral commun., 1972) show a sharp 

peak in metal content in the early spring before the 

dilution drop. 

The differences in concentrations of elements resulting 

from variation in uptake by species, parts of the plants, 

and season of collection were determined using four trees 

growing on unmineralized schist in a remote area of
56 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Colorado more than half a mile (0.8 km) from the nearest 

road. The leaves, twigs, wood, roots, and, in some cases, 

fruit of two coniferous trees, Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa 

pine) and Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Douglas-fir), and two 

deciduous trees, Populus tremuloides (aspen) and Acer 

glabrum (mountain maple), were sampled in spring,

TABLE 24. Lead in garden produce

[Leaders (...) indicate no dataj

Number Lead in ash Lead in dry weight 

Type of produce of <PPm) <PPm>

samples Median Range Median Range

Great Britain and British Columbia

Do2 . .................................................... 8 .... ...... .17 .03- .94

Fruit2 ......................................................... 5 .... ...... .08 .04- .18

New York, Maryland, and New Mexico

Fruits:

Nonleafy vegetables:

Beets................................................... 7 < 10 <10- 50 <1.8 <1 12.5

Carrots................................................ 8 < 10 <10- 50 <1.5 < .99-9

Corn................................................... 15 < 10 <10- 70 < .25 < .2 - 1.05

Cucumbers......................................... 4 < 10 ...... <2 .........

Onions............................................... 5 20 10- 20 1.3 .7 - 1.84

Potatoes.............................................. 9 < 10 <10- 30 < .48 < .44- 1.65

Rhubarb............................................. 4 10 ...... 1 .........

Turnips.............................................. 2 < 20 ...... <2.7 .........

Leafy vegetables: 

Cabbage.............................................. 9 10 < 10- 30 2.3 < 1.8 - 4.2

Kale.................................................... 4 < 20 < 10- 20 <2.5 < 1.9 - 2.4 

Lettuce................................................ 6 < 10 < 10 70 3.3 <2 14

Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota4

Fruit:

Vegetables: 

Asparagus........................................... 5 150 25-300 12.0 2.3 -30

Bean, green (pod)............................... 3 <25 ...... <1.5 ......... 

Beet (root).......................................... 4 25 <25- 25 2.6 < 1.4 -3.6

Cabbage.............................................. 11 25 <25- 25 2.2 <1.4 - 3.5

Carrot................................................. 8 <25 <25 25 <2.4 <2.2 3.8 

Cauliflower........................................ 2 <25 <25- 25 <2.0 <2.0 - 2.1 

Corn (field). ....................................... 25 25 <25-150 .4 < .3 - 2.2

Corn (sweet)....................................... 4 25 <25- 50 .5 < .5-1.0 

Cucumber........................................... 4 25 < 25-150 2.9 <2.4 18.7

Onion................................................. 7 <25 <25- 25 < 1.2 <1.1 - 1.1 

Parsnip............................................... <25 ...... < 1.2 .........

Pepper (sweet).................................... 4 <25 ...... < 1.7 ......... 

Potato (white). ................................... 10 25 <25- 50 1.2 < .95- 2.1 

Pumpkin............................................ 1 <25 ...... <3.0 .........

Radish (white) ................................... < 25 ...... <4.1 ......... 

Rhubarb............................................. < 25 ...... <4.0 ......... 

Rutabaga............................................ 2 < 25 ...... <2.3 ......... 

Squash, hubbard................................ 25 ...... 1.2 .........

Swiss chard. ....................................... 25 ...... 4.8 ......... 

Turnip............................................... 25 ...... 5.9 .........

Total............................................... 100 25 <25-300 1.3 <0.3 -30

"Warren and Delavault (1971). 

zKehoe (1961). 

'Warren (1972). 

«H. T. Shacklette (written commun., 1970).

summer, and fall and analyzed for lead (table 25). Each 

value represents an average of several analyses. A drop in 

lead occurs as expected in the summer collections of pine, 

Douglas-fir, and aspen leaves, but not in maple. A drop is 

apparent in young twigs again as expected but also 

occurs in either the older twigs or older needles. As might 

be expected, the seasonal differences in older twigs are not 

so great nor so consistent as in young twigs in any species. 

However, the fact that seasonal differences of as much as 

four to nine times can occur in the young twigs and leaves 

of trees argues in favor of making all the collections for any 

project during the same month. 

For prospecting purposes, Warren (1966) advised 

collecting older growth, preferably second year, which 

varies less seasonally in lead content and more consistently 

reflects anomalous lead contents in the soil than do other 

accessible parts of the tree.

TABLE 25. Seasonal variations of lead in trees and soils

Material analyzed Season or date

Sycamores from Craigiebuckler, Scotland (Guha and Mitchell, 1966) 

(ppm, dry weight)

May 13 June 15 July 3 July 30 Aug. 24 Sept. 23 Oct. 26

Leaf blade....................... 3 .9 1.8 1.8 1.3 3.1 2

Colorado trees and soil (H. L. Cannon, this report) 

(ppm, average of three sample splits; soil collected under respective trees)

Spring Summer Fall Other1

Ash Dry wt Ash Dry wt Ash Dry wt Ash Dry wt 

Aspen:

First year twitis 40 2 9 20 1 1 50 3 4

Wood........................................................................................................... 40 1.2

Soil:

B zone ................................................................................................................ 20

Maple: 

Young leaves........... 50 2.9 70 4.8 85 7.0 ............................

Wood........................................................................................................... 300 6.9

Soil: 

Humus............................................................................................................... 30 

A zone...... .......................................................................................................... 30

B zone ................................................................................................................ 30 

Pine:

Older needles .......... 200 4.89 300 6 300 8.1 ............................ 

First-year twigs ....... 300 9 100 2.5 370 8.3 ............................ 

Older twigs. ............ 1,000 29 850 19 700 16 ............................

Wood........................................................................................................... 700 16 

Roots........................................................................................................... 150 3.6 

Soil: 

Humus............................................................................................................... 50

B zone................................................................................................................ 20

Douglas-fir: 

Young needles......... 200 5.6 70 2.1 200 6.6 ............................ 

Older needles .......... 200 8.2 200 8.3 320 9.4 ............................ 

First-year twigs ....... 600 18 70 2.1 500 14 ............................ 

Older twigs............. 1,750 44 1,750 35 1,500 32 ............................

Wood........................................................................................................... 700 14 

Roots........................................................................................................... 60 1.7 

245 1.7 

Soil:

'Season not specified. 

2In root bark.
LEAD IN VEGETATION 57

VARIATION IN LEAD CONTENTS WITH 

PARTS OF PLANT

Lead contents vary greatly in different parts of the plant. 

Jones (1959) reported higher concentrations of lead in 

leaves than in stems of kale and rape. John and Van 

Laerhoven (1972) found that the leaves of lettuce and 

spinach and the tuberous portions of radish and carrot 

plants accumulated markedly higher lead concentrations 

than did the heads the edible portions of cauliflower, 

broccoli, or oats. Guha and Mitchell (1966) found more 

lead in leaves than in stems of four deciduous trees. The 

data for aspen, maple, pine, and fir in Colorado (table 25) 

indicate considerable variation in different parts of a tree, 

as well as variation depending on season. Certainly in the 

conifers (pine and Douglas-fir), large concentrations of 

lead are stored in older twigs and cones. In the spring 

collection, Douglas-fir contained 5.6 ppm lead in the dry 

weight of leaves, 18 ppm in the first-year twigs, 44 ppm in 

older twigs, 32 ppm in cones, 14 ppm in wood, and only 

1-7 ppm in roots. Lounamaa (1956) demonstrated a 

definite increase in concentration of lead in roots. This 

increase is not apparent in the data from Colorado, but 

large concentrations have been observed in roots of plants 

growing in highly mineralized ground.

Zimdahl and Arvick (1972) have measured lead uptake 

by sugar beets, corn, beans, and wheat grown in hydroponic solutions and in soil containing various levels of 

lead nitrate. Lead uptake by and distribution within the 

plants were directly related to the concentration of lead in 

the solution. Lead was concentrated in the root with 

limited translocation to the shoot. Similarly, the primary 

leaf of pinto beans contained less lead than did the stem 

but always more than the trifoliate leaf. The following 

table shows that massive amounts of lead can be absorbed 

by a plant when the metal is present in an available form. 

Translocation of lead is increased with increasing concentration from 100 to 1,000 ppm in the Pb(NO3)2 medium.

In vegetables fed lead in a nutrient solution, Motto, 

Daines, Chilko, and Motto (1970) reported as much as an 

eightfold increase in lead content of leaves, with a corresponding increase of as much as fortyfold (to a maximum

100 ppm Pb 1,000 ppm Pb

Plant and part

Pinto bean:

Sugar beet: 

Root1 ................

Wheat:

Shoot................

Corn: 

Root..................

Pb absorbed 

(Mg/g 

dry weight)

. 32,400

140

. 54,300

9 300

260

. 10,600

390

Root/shoot Pbabs°rbed 

ratio (^S 

dry weight)

P>4 400

*" * 13,300

84,800

o, 8 16,000

Mf ° 5,800

99 7fifi

*' * 9,160

Root/shoot 

ratio

4.1

2.8

2.5

'Shoot not analyzed.

of 764 Mg/g in dry weight) in the roots. Shacklette (1963) 

found an average of 3.32 ppm lead in leaves and 3.84 ppm 

in branches of 22 samples of American elm collected in 

Wisconsin in nonmineralized soil.

Samples of cedar and oak that I collected for background material in Missouri had the following concentrations of lead, in parts per million:

Cedar Oak

First-year twigs with leaf scales...................... 6 .....

Leaves.............................................................. ...... 1.6

First-year twigs................................................ ...... 3.8

Wood............................................................... .54 1.5

Bark................................................................. 5.5 12.5

The analyses show that, as compared to the bark, wood has 

a low lead content. Similar data are shown later in the 

discussion of lead contents in trees on contaminated 

ground.

Kennedy (1960) sampled needles, twigs, and cones of 

seven coniferous species in the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, leadzinc district and found marked accumulations in the 

twigs, with a maximum of 130 ppm in the dry weight for 

Douglas-fir twigs; concentrations in roots and humus 

were not measured.

The concentrations of lead in peeled and unpeeled 

vegetables and fruits were compared in a study of produce 

from Washington County, Md. (table 26).

Although these analyses include the entire vegetable 

and do not give a separate value for the skins, the difference 

between peeled and unpeeled produce is striking. 

Similarly, the contrast between the relatively high concentrations in the root crops and the relatively low ones in 

fruits reflects a true difference in distribution of lead. 

However, the values in the leafy vegetables, even though 

washed, may have been raised by vehicular exhaust lead, as 

many of the gardens were in contaminated areas.

TABLE 26. Concentrations of lead in unpeeled and peeled garden produce from Maryland

[Analysts: Uteana Oda, E. F. Cooley, D. J. Fennelly, and H. G. Neiman, U.S. Geological 

Survey. Numbers in parentheses indicate number of samples collected]

Unpeeled Peeled

Root vegetables (26): 

Salsify.................

Onions...............

Beets...................

Potatoes..............

Carrots................

Fruits (8): 

Peaches. 

Apples..

1.7 <2.2

1.84 1.3

16.5 <1.4

2.6 < .62

2.1 <1

< .6 .53 

.37 < .22

Leafy vegetables (22)............................................-.. 5.24

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF LEAD ON PLANT 

GROWTH

Lead is not considered to be an element essential to plant 

growth, although Stoklasa (1913) reported that lead 

nitrate in small amounts increased the growth of plants; in 

large amounts, however, it proved toxic. Tsetsura (1948), 

also using solutions of lead nitrate, reported an increase in
58 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

the germination of seeds at low lead concentrations and a 

retardation at high levels. One questions whether the 

stimulation in both experiments may not have been 

caused by the nitrate ion. Using lead acetate, Bonnet (1922) 

found that lead was readily taken into the root but that 

little was translocated to the leaves. Transpiration was 

greatly diminished, and the roots were short and thin. 

Seeds of many plants were found to be sensitive to lead, 

but corn was very tolerant and germinated after being 

soaked in lead acetate for 19 days. Hevesy (1923) used a 

radioisotope of lead to trace the localization of lead in 

different parts of the plant Viciafaba (horsebean). Only 0.3 

percent of the lead was taken into the root from a 10" 1 N 

solution in 24 hours but 60 percent of the lead from a 10 ~6 

N solution was taken up in the same length of time. The 

percentage of lead that is translocated to the tops is greater 

in concentrated solutions because the roots are capable of 

binding nearly all of the lead in dilute solution. When the 

plants were moved to different solutions, Hevesy found 

that the tagged lead could be readily interchanged with 

other lead atoms or with copper atoms but not as readily 

with cadmium, zinc, chromium, barium, or sodium 

atoms. He also found that lead uptake by plants is not 

dependent on the absorption of water.

Hammet (1928) studied the effects of lead at the cellular 

level and found that lead retarded cell proliferation, while 

it allowed the cells to increase in size. Lead is most 

concentrated in areas of greatest mitotic activity (the area 

of rapid elongation), where a reaction takes place between 

the lead and an organic sulfhydryl.

Culture experiments by Scharrer and Schropp (1936) 

showed that corn and rye were particularly resistant to lead 

toxicity but that barley, oats, and especially wheat were 

sensitive to lead poisoning. Recent sand culture studies 

with corn by Miller and Koeppe (1971) have clarified in 

several respects the effects of lead on plants in relation to 

other substances, particularly phosphorus. No effects on 

growth were noted when lead was absorbed under 

phosphorus-sufficient conditions, but under phsophorusdeficient conditions growth was retarded and corn died at 

a level of 6,000 ;u mol lead. The age of the plant at the time 

of lead treatment was also found to be important, as the 

effects of lead were much more pronounced on the 

younger plants. Corn leaves accumulated large amounts 

of lead depending on the amount of lead applied and the 

phosphate condition of the plant; phosphate-deficient 

plants accumulated 5-10 times as much lead as the 

phosphate-sufficient plants.

Mitochondria studies (Miller and Koeppe, 1971) show 

that lead affects mitochondrial respiration, which is 

related to the phosphate status. Diaphorase experiments 

suggest that the sites of lead action are the specific flavoproteins for the oxidation of NADH and succinate. The 

lack of a lead effect on the oxidation of malate indicates 

that not all flavoproteins are sensitive to lead.

Malyuga (1964) reported that an unusual doublepetaled form of the large poppy, Papaver macrostomum, 

grows in high-lead soil at Kadzharan. The double-petal 

form is created by a deeper incision of the petals, often to 

the base, which gives the impression of eight petals instead 

of four.

Other effects of lead on plants can be seen in the results 

of a study carried out by the author and L. W. Reichen in 

1947. We grew sweetpeas, tomatoes, bluegrass, and violets 

in vermiculite at pH values of 7.6 and 5.8 and fed the plants 

increasing dosages of lead, copper, and zinc, both 

separately and in combination in Hoagland nutrient solution. The nutrient solution also contained small amounts 

of minor metals that had proved sufficient to maintain the 

control plants in healthy condition. The objectives of this 

experiment were to determine (1) the ultimate toxic limits 

for these three metals in representatives of several plant 

families, (2) the amounts of these metals that can be 

absorbed by these plants before toxic limits are reached, (3) 

the effects of each metal on uptake of other metals, and (4) 

the observable physiologic effects of these metals on 

plants. The experiment was originally conceived in 

connection with studies of a muck area in New York State 

that contained large quantities of zinc and lead (Cannon, 

1955). That experiment was performed to determine 

whether the vegetation of the bogs could have extracted the 

metals from ground waters draining dolomites rich in zinc 

and whether observable physiological effects could be used 

as indicators of mineralized substrate.

In the 1947 study, the plants were fed the following 

solution, which was prepared in the laboratory and had a 

pH of 7.6:

10 cm3 MgSO4 7H2O 

20 cm3 Ca(N03) 2 4H2O 

5 cm3 KH2PO4

12 cm3 minor elements in 0.5 1 H2O: 

0.50 g MnSO4

.25 g ZnSO4

.25 g CuSO4

.75 g boric acid

Iron solution (0.5 percent FeSO4+0.4 percent tartaric 

acid) was added three times a week as 0.6 cmVl of solution. 

To lower the pH of the nutrient solution from 7.6 to 5.8, 

10 cm3 of (NH4) 2SO4 was substituted for 10 cm3 of 

Ca(NO3 ) 2 4H2O. After the plants had become well established, increasing amounts of copper sulfate, lead acetate, 

and zinc acetate were added to the solution in milliequivalents for 1 month until the tolerance limits of the 

plants were reached. The plants were then harvested and 

analyzed by dithizone methods for copper, lead, and zinc 

contents. The results involving lead and its enteractions 

with zinc and copper are summarized in table 27.

The uptake by plants under acid and alkaline conditions varied greatly among species. Sweetpeas and violets 

were unable to take up lead from the acid solutions, but at 

a pH of 7.6 the vines and leaves of sweetpeas contained as
LEAD IN VEGETATION 59

TABLE 27. Effects of lead and other metals on growth of plants from four plant families

[The original vermiculite contained 25 ppm lead. Control plants were germinated and grown in a nutrient solution at pH 7.6; their lead contents in the dry weight at harvest 

wereasfollows:sweetpea, 18ppm; tomato, 18ppm;bluegrass,33ppm; violet, 13ppm.Leaders(...)indicatenodata]

Plant

Solution 

PH

Metal contents at harvest 

(ppm, dry weight)

Height at harvest

(in.) (cm)

Effects of metals on growth

Plants grown in lead solution1

Tomato...............

Violet..................

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8

Lead

8,20011

1,500 

130

2,400 

2,400 

430

12

60 

41 

31 

14

14-24 

10-15

7.5

6

152 

104 

79 

36

36-60 

25-38 

19

15

Thin vines; no chlorosis; brittle roots. 

Healthy; slightly chlorotic. 

Healthy; buds still developing. 

Healthy; white tips on leaves.

80 percent alive; still growing dark-blue-green smooth leaves. 

95 percent alive; still growing dark-blue-green rough leaves. 

Dark green, glossy; healthier than control plant; seed pods 

developed. 

Dark-green dull leaves.

Plants grown in lead-copper-zinc solution1

Sweetpea. ............

Bluegrass. ...........

Violet..................

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8 

7.6

5.8

Lead 

190 

14 

260

850

150 

430 

550

1,700 

140 

190 

80

290 

58

Zinc

4,300 

450 

260 

620

880 

1,100 

5,000

60 

36 

27 

16

9-14 

8-13 

5 

3.5

152 

91 

68

4

23-36 

20-33 

13 

10

Very thin vines. 

Tip dead; leaves crinkled. 

Slight chlorosis; a few buds. 

All leaves chlorotic.

75 percent alive; smooth leaves. 

95 percent alive; rough leaves. 

Advanced chlorosis; brittle roots. 

Dark glossy curled leaves.

 Transpiration of water was much less from plants fed solutions containing lead.

much as 8,200 ppm lead dry weight. Bluegrass contained 

2,400 ppm lead at pH's of both 7.6 and 5.8. Tomatoes 

concentrated more lead in an acid solution in the presence 

of excess copper and zinc. The symptoms of lead toxicity 

include thin weak stems, white leaf tips, brittle roots, and, 

in the more tolerant species, dark-blue-green foliage. Bluegrass and violets were extremely tolerant of lead and were, 

at the time of harvest, as healthy as the controls. Certainly, 

plants can extract lead from nutrient solution and do not 

appear in general to be as affected by lead as by zinc and 

copper.

ANOMALOUS LEAD CONCENTRATIONS IN 

PLANTS

Plants absorb lead in anomalous quantities from agricultural activity, from the air, from mineralized ground, 

and from contaiminated alluvium along streams that 

drain areas of mining processing activity. Let us consider 

first the accumulation of lead by plants in mineralized 

ground and the species of plants that can grow there.

Plants rooted in soils naturally enriched in metals or in 

soils in which the metal occurs in an unusually available 

form have been subject to lead accumulation since plants 

first appeared on the Earth. Although plants growing in 

mineralized areas may contain lead at levels deleterious to 

the health of animals, including man, the areas of undisturbed mineralized ground are relatively small and are 

mostly in forested or uncultivated regions. Therefore, the 

greatest effect of lead from plants growing in a naturally

mineralized substrate may be on animals rather than on 

man. One exception may be vegetables raised commercially on peats enriched in lead.

The first analyses for lead in plants from a mineralized 

area were made in Sweden by Hedstrom and Nordstrom 

(1945), who developed a method of sampling trees along 

transects in favorable areas as a prospecting tool. At about 

the same time Hans Lundberg (written commun., 1947), 

in tracing the source of toxic lead in maple syrup from 

Pakenham, Ontario, found that the lead had originated in 

sap of trees growing in an area with a high soil-lead 

anomaly. Further studies showed high lead in maple at the 

Frontenac lead mine in Ontario and in Ledum palustre 

(crystaltea ledum) and Betula sp. (birch) at the Buchans 

mine in Newfoundland. In Missouri, Harbaugh (1950) 

also found lead levels in plants to be higher in mineralized ground than in barren ground, but not as consistently 

high as zinc levels were. Webb and Millman (1951) tested 

plants as a method of prospecting in Nigeria. They found 

that the concentrations of lead in twigs and leaves of 

savanna trees in the lead-zinc belt increase near mineralized ground and that the lead values gave pronounced geochemical anomalies many times wider than the lodes. The 

normal lead content in the ash of twigs of several species of 

trees averaged 1 ppm in unmineralized areas and ranged 

from 7 to 270 ppm in mineralized areas. Comparable 

anomalies were found in the leaves. Hawkes (1954) later 

compared lead content of soils along the same traverse (fig. 

10).
60 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Malyuga (1964) similarly compared lead contents of soil 

and ash of plant leaves and roots, that of roots being considerably higher than that of soil or leaves.

J. B. Cathrall and G. B. Gott (written commun., 1975) 

collected twigs and needles from eight species of conifers, 

from more than 600 trees in the highly mineralized Coeur 

d'Alene district, Idaho. Mull was collected from the same 

localities. The concentration of lead in the soils in which 

the trees grew ranged from 10 ppm to 1,500 ppm, with a 

median value of 28 ppm.

The plant ash was analyzed by an arc emission speclrographic method that permitted the determination of 

concentrations of as much as 5,000 ppm lead. The arithmetic means of lead in the ash of these samples was 3,088 

ppm for twigs, 1,039 ppm for needles, and 1,611 ppm for 

mull (see table 28). The lead content of these samples, from 

all species, was consistently about three times higher in 

twigs than in needles and about two times higher in twigs 

than in mull. The mean value of lead in twigs, relative to 

lead in needles and mull, must be even greater, because 91 

twig samples contain more than 5,000 ppm lead.

Worthington (1955) made a biogeochemical survey of 

the Showangunk lead-zinc-copper mine in New York 

State using white birch twigs and soil. The lead values and 

copper-zinc ratio were more useful than the copper or zinc 

values in outlining the orebody. In Finland, Salmi (1959) 

became interested in sampling peat as a method of 

prospecting glaciated country. At the copper-zinc-lead 

area in Vihanti Parish, he sampled leaves and twigs of 

Ledum palustre (crystaltea ledum) and peat at the same 

traverse stations to test the method in an area where the ore 

had already been outlined. Anomalous metal in the plants

West 

1500 r

1000

9 500

East 

-i150

n

Lead content of oven-dried-^ |

twigs of Aftelia Africans \ \

(from Webb and Millman, f

1951) I

il 100

I 

50 <

100

, I

200 300

I

400 FEET

I i i i -]

0 100 METRES

FIGURE 10. Comparative lead content of soils and plants near Ameka 

lode, Nigeria (from Hawkes, 1954).

in an area not known to be mineralized was later explained 

by the discovery of a new ore body. Similar tests were made 

by Talipov (1964) in Uzbekistan where he reported 

concentrations of lead in soils to be 10-20 times above 

average and to accumulate in the humus layer; and 

Polikarpochkina, Polikarpochkina, and Abramov (1965) 

showed that dispersion halos of the metals in plants repeat 

the zonal structure of metal ores in the eastern Transbaikal province.

High lead contents were found by Poskotin, Yushkov, 

Yurinskii, and Snegirev (1969) in birch, aspen, and pine in 

areas of mineral deposits. They concluded that the amount 

of lead depended on the depth to ore, plant species, age,

TABLE 28. Lead in conifer twigs, needles, and subjacent mull, Coeur 

d'Alene district, Idaho

Lead concentrations (ppm in ash)

Arithmetic Geometric 

Minimum Maximum mean mean

Douglas-fir

Twigs.............. 396

Needles............ 425

Mull................ 437

Western white pine

Twigs.............. 37

Needles............ 37

Mull................ 37

Grand fir

Twigs.............. 42

Needles............ 42

Mull................ 42

Western hemlock

Twigs.............. 4

Needles............ 4

Mull................ 4

Sub alpine fir

Twigs.............. 40

Needles............ 52

Mull................ 52

Lodgepole pine

Twigs.............. 39

Needles............ 39

Mull................ 37

Ponderosa pine

Twigs.............. 5

Needles............ 5

Mull................ 5

All species

Twigs.............. 549

Needles............ 605

Mull................ 616

200

100

70

200

100

100

1,000

200

300

2,000

500

1,000

200

100

100

200

150

150

150

150

100

150

100

70

>5,000 

>5,000 

>5,000

>5,000 

>5,000 

>5,000

>5,000 

>5,000 

>5,000

>5,000 

>5,000 

>5,000

>5,000 

>5,000 

>5,000

> 5,000 

> 5,000 

> 5,000

1,500

500

1,000

> 5,000 

> 5,000 

> 5,000

3,288

927

1,564

3,354

2,777

3,030

2,938

779

1,940

4,250

925

2,250

2,280

734

1,219

1,851

1,419

1,048

710

270

400

3,080

1,039

1,611

2,775

712

1,105

2,394

1,538

2,094

2,739

634

1,591

3,942

851

2,060

1,710

642

953

1,342

876

651

412

246

306

2,478

735

1,117

Lead frequency (number of occurrences in all species studied)

Lead (ppm)

0

70

100

150

200

Twigs

0

0

0

1

11

Needles

0

0

4

9

41

Mull

0

1

9

1

27

300

500

700

1,000

1,500

2,000

3,000

5,000

> 5,000

9

7

24

32

46

104

109

115

91

69

89

151

118

46

36

13

14

15

55

83

15

120

67

119

68

29

22
LEAD IN VEGETATION 61

development of the root system, and mobility of lead in the 

particular geochemical environment. Brown and Meyer 

(1956) have also tested plants as a prospecting tool in the 

Edwards-Balmat district in New York and obtained 

positive results over known orebodies, although there was 

a wide variation in absorption by species.

A very thorough pilot study by Hornbrook (1969) of the 

Silvermine lead deposit, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, 

indicates the scope and limits of geobotanical and biogeochemical prospecting methods. The data included 4,050 

spectrographic determinations for lead in organic soil and 

plant material. The lead deposits are overlain by till that 

showed anomalous concentrations of lead, although the 

extent of the anomaly had been modified by glacial action. 

The pattern of lead anomalies in plant organs of different 

ages was compared, and anomalous concentrations in 

bark and twigs were sufficient to outline the extent of the 

ore. Although twigs contained more lead than bark, bark 

provided a more reliable basis for interpretation. The 

differences in lead concentration for different ages of twigs 

were not significant for prospecting purposes.

Several studies of lead uptake by plants in mineralized 

areas have been made by U.S. Geological Survey scientists. 

Shacklette (1960) made a study of vegetation and soils at 

the Mahoney Creek lead-zinc deposit in southeastern 

Alaska. The results given in table 29 show that mean lead 

concentrations increase from 90 ppm in the ash of plants 

from unmineralized ground to 160 ppm in the ash of 

plants rooted in soil over the vein. Shacklette suggested 

that the significance of differences between background, 

halo, and vein values of a species may be judged by the 

standard error. If a difference between two values is as great 

as or greater than twice the standard error, it can be 

considered a significant difference, not a sampling error.

Keith (1969) reported on similar studies of three 

deciduous tree species in the Upper Mississippi Valley 

lead-zinc district, where he collected 152 soils and 256 

plants in mineralized areas and 306 soil and 368 plant 

samples in nonmineralized areas (table 29). It is apparent 

that, as expected, stems contain at least twice as much lead 

as leaves, but, contrary to expectations, lead is not noticeably concentrated in the trees growing on mineralized 

ground and is actually higher in nonmineralized areas. On 

the other hand, zinc (not shown here) was significantly 

concentrated in trees on mineralized ground. Keith 

believed the anomalously low concentrations of lead to be 

due to a higher pH in mineralized limestones in contrast to 

the surrounding areas of sandstone and glacial drift.

A study of lead in vegetation of the Ruby Hill lead-silver 

mining district in Arizona by Maurice Chaffee (written 

commun., 1970) shows the increase in lead uptake in an 

acid sulfide environment (table 29). The data show a 

remarkable concentration of lead in the older wood of sage 

and, in other vegetation, about a tenfold increase in lead

over the levels in vegetation of the Upper Mississippi 

Valley limestone district.

Studies by Wallace (1971) show no effect of calcium 

on lead uptake by bushbeans, but a large increase in root 

absorption of lead when iron is added and a decrease with 

increments of NaHCO3 .

Lead accompanied by zinc and cadmium may also 

accumulate in spring-fed peat bogs that drain dolomites of 

relatively high, but noneconomic, lead concentrations. 

When these peats are drained for "muck" farming of 

commercial vegetable crops, the metals become oxidized 

and are thus available to the vegetation to such an extent 

that vegetables cannot be grown in certain areas of highly 

mineralized peat. Such a situation developed on the 

"Manning muck" in Orleans County, N.Y., in 1938, but, 

during the last 30 years, the oxidized metals have been 

leached from the muck by ground and surface waters and 

neither wild plants nor vegetables now contain 

anomalous amounts of lead (Cannon, 1955,1970). Some of 

the actual lead and zinc contents for the years 1946 and 

1967-68 are given in table 30.

It is unfortunate that vegetables grown on the 

"Manning muck" were not analyzed for lead by Staker 

(1942) in 1938, as the median zinc content he recorded at 

that time was 140 ppm, and by 1946 the zinc content of 

native vegetation had dropped to one-third that level. 

Presumably, lead levels would have shown the same sharp 

decrease. In the 1946 collections, native vegetation (37 

samples) had a median of 10 ppm and a range of 2-58 ppm 

lead in the dry weight; in the 1967-68 collections, native 

vegetation (7 samples) had a median of 4.7 ppm and a 

range of < 0.5-10.2, and the vegetables (15 samples) had a 

median of < 0.5 ppm and a range of < 0.5-6.

LEAD INDICATOR AND ACCUMULATOR PLANTS

Certain species of plants that are tolerant of high-lead 

soils have been used as indicators in prospecting. These 

species may have adapted to living exclusively on rocks or 

soils that supply unusual amounts of a particular element, 

or they may have acquired an immunity to large amounts 

of an element by being able to reject the metal at the root 

site. Some indicator plants that have been found 

universally associated with a particular mineral 

assemblage absorb and concentrate large amounts of one 

or more metals in their storage tissues; others that do not 

concentrate large amounts of the metals in question may 

be species of wide distribution that favor mineralized 

ground under certain local conditions, because of a 

reduction in competition or a change in acidity, water 

conditions, or availability of major plant nutrients 

(Cannon, 1971).

Inasmuch as lead and zinc commonly occur together in 

ore deposits, it is difficult to establish positively that a 

particular plant is an indicator of lead. Plants that have
62 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 29. Lead content of vegetation and soils from several mining districts 

[Number of samples, where specified, shown in parentheses]

Material analyzed Plant pan Mean lead contents (ppm)

Mahoney Creek Lead-zinc deposit, Alaska1

Menziesia ferruginosa 

(rusty menziesia). 

Do....................................

Vaccinium ovalifolium 

(whortleberry). 

Tsuga heterophylla 

(hemlock).

Gaultheria shallon 

(wintergreen). 

Vaccinium parvifolium 

(whortleberry).

Picea sitchensis 

(spruce). 

Mean of all plants.......

Soil samples ...........................

8-in. older stems.............

8-in. stems and leaves ....

10-in. stems and needles 

10-in. stems and leaves...

8-in. stems and leaves ....

8-in. stems and needles ..

Background 

( + standard 

error)

............. 140+10

(20) 

............. 40+10

(20) 

............. 40±10

(20) 

............. 160+10

(18) 

............. 50+10

(15) 

............. 50+10

(4) 

............. 50

(1) 

.............. 90±10

............. 20+10

Halo

160±20 

(10) 

60±20 

(10)

60+20 

(10) 

160+20 

(9)

170+120 

(8) 

40+10

(4)

50

(1) 

110±20

110±40

Vein

350+60

(5) 

110±30

(5)

100+30 

(5) 

140±40

(5)

110±40 

(4) 

180+100 

(2)

150

(2) 

160+20

1,300±690

Upper Mississippi Valley district2

Nonmineralized areas

Quercus sp. (oak)...................

Soils: 

A Horizon ........................

B Horizon ........................

C Horizon ........................

In ash of In dry wt 

plants of plants

(368) (368) 

............. 102 4.9

29 3

119 4 7

............. 44 4.5

............. 150 6.8

............. 61 2.8

In dry wt 

of soils

(306)

18

13

13

In ash of 

plants

(256) 

78 

26 

135 

62 

99 

57

Mineralized areas

In dry wt In dry wt 

of plants of soils

(256) (152) 

3.7 .........

2.7 .........

6.5 .........

6.3 .........

4.5 .........

2.6 .........

......................... 124

......................... 67

117

Ruby Hill mining district, Arizona3

Pinus edulis (pinyon) .............

Artemisia tridentata (sage)......

Juniper sp. (juniper)...............

Cercocarpos ledifolius 

(mountain mahagony).

Median..........................

Range ...........................

1- to 2-year twigs...........

Needles ..........................

Needles ..........................

1- to 2-year twigs...........

1-year growth................

Older wood and leaves..

do............................

do............................

do............................

do............................

do............................

In ash

500 

500 

500 

500 

700 

700

700 

5,000 

1,500 

> 5,000

200 

100 

200

700 

700 

2,000

700 

100->5,000

In dry wt

12.0 

13 

11 

13 

14 

16.8

42 

270 

90 

>220

7.2 

3.8 

8.4

36 

36

88

15.4 

3.8->220

'Collected by H. T. Shacklette; analyzed by D. R. Marx. 

2Analyzed by Maurice DeValliere and J. C. Hamilton. 

'Analyzed by E. L. Mosier.
LEAD IN VEGETATION 63

TABLE 30. Maximum lead and zinc contents, in parts per million

dry weight, of plants and drained peat, Orleans County, N.Y. 

[N, not detected. Analysts: H. W. Lakin, F. N. Ward, Laura Reichen, H. Almond, F. Grimaldi, H.

Rubus occidentalis (wild raspberry)......

Year of 

collection

.. 1967-68

.. 1967-68 

.. 1967-68

Lead

Plant

42 

50 

6 

2 

55

58 

4 

4 

10 

2.4

2.0

N 

N 

N 

4.7

3.0 

7.5 

10.2

Soil

67 

250 

250 

250 

250

110 

28 

110 

67 

105

38 

16.5 

16.5 

16.5 

23

38 

38 

23

Zinc

Plant

10,000 

4,800 

2,000 

1,000 

600

390 

860 

860 

10,000 

104

156 

44 

150 

225 

487

450 

487 

490

Soil

26,000 

88,000 

88,000 

88,000 

88,000

4,200 

5,100 

4,200 

26,000 

9,900

5,200 

600 

2,800 

2,800 

6,200

31,000 

6,200 

1,100

been reported as indicators or accumulators of lead are 

given in table 31. Plants that have been mentioned in the 

literature as being indicators of lead deposits in the 

Mississippi Valley lead-zinc district include white birch, 

cottonwood, and wild indigo. The association of 

Amorpha canescens (leadplant) with lead that has been 

mentioned in the early literature has not been verified. In 

northern Australia, zone of copper-lead-zinc minerals 

permits a more careful study of the tolerance of the various 

species that grow there (Cole, Provan, and Tooms, 1968). 

Gomphrena canescens R. B. (globe amaranth) and 

Polycarpea synandra F. Muell. var. gracilis (a pink), two of 

the indicator species, were found to tolerate 50,000 ppm 

zinc and 5,000 ppm lead in the soil. At another deposit, 

Polycarpea glabra (a pink), Bulbostylis barbata 

(bulletwood), andEriachne mucronata indicated lead-zinc 

ores, the last concentrating as much as 50 ppm lead in the 

dry weight.

Although no trees were considered to be indicators of 

lead ores in studies that have been made by H. V. Warren in 

Canada and H. T. Shacklette in Alaska, very high contents 

of lead have been found in Douglas-fir, mountain 

hemlock, alder, birch, and heather. Shacklette (1965) 

described the distribution of a liverwort (Cephalozia 

bicuspidata) as entirely covering the surface of the ore, to 

the exclusion of all other species, at the Mahoney Creek 

lead-zinc mine in Alaska. The exposed ore contained 12.9 

percent lead. The concentrations of lead in Canadian 

hemlock, arborvitae, and several common adven live weeds 

from mineralized, drained peat in New York were also 

high, the lead content in the dry weight of coniferous 

species exceeding that of the peat. Lequm palustre in 

Finland was found by Salmi (1959) to accumulate high 

lead contents compared to other speciesj Thyssen (1942)

has reported a grass, Molina altissima, growing at 

Innerstetal, Germany, to contain 35,600 ppm lead in the 

ash. The grass species, Agrostis tennis, appears to have 

adapted specifically to high-lead soils, and seed from 

selected heavy-metal-tolerant races of this species is being 

used as cover on mine dumps and tailings in Wales 

(Jowett, 1964; Wild and Wiltshire, 1971).

Some naturally lead poisoned areas have been studied 

and described in detail by Lag and B^lviken (1974). 

Occurrences of naturally lead poisoned soil and vegetation have been found in 5 different areas in Norway where 

deposits of galena occur in the bedrock. In the initial 

stages of poisoning, the forest trees and Vaccinium spp. 

(blueberry) are replaced by Deschampsia flexuosa 

(hairgrass), which grows profusely but without seed. 

Where lead poisoning is more advanced, the vegetation is 

abnormal or dying, and in highly mineralized soils, the 

ground is barren. D. flexuosa responds to increasing 

contents of lead in the soil with a corresponding decrease 

in the plant-Pb/soil-Pb ratio. After a low ratio of 0.6 

percent is reached, at level of 1 percent lead in the soil, the 

ratio remains constant with increasing soil lead until the 

plant is killed. This defense mechanism of D. flexuosa, 

combined with a restricted availability of lead in the soil, 

effectively counteracts poisoning of the plant. Because 

plant growth is retarded, podzolization of the soil in these 

poisoned areas is lacking and erosion of morainic soils is 

increased, resulting in a stony soil surface. Lag and 

B^lviken believe the search for areas showing signs of 

natural heavy-metal poisoning to be a valuable method of 

geochemical prospecting.

ANOMALOUS LEAD CONCENTRATIONS IN 

PLANTS RESULTING FROM MAN'S ACTIVITY

LEAD ACCUMULATION RELATED TO MINING AND 

SMELTING ACTIVITY

The activities of man in the mining, milling, and 

smelting of ores have released considerable lead into the 

environment. These accumulations, because they occur as 

the result of activities in populated areas and because they 

may be released in a more available form than the original 

sulfide ores, may have a greater effect on health and disease 

than the lead in vegetation rooted in mineralized ground. 

Extensive studies are being conducted in Great Britain and 

Japan, where health problems have arisen in populations 

living in contaminated areas.

In Japan, lead analyses have been made of agricultural 

products grown near a large zinc refinery in Annaka City, 

where a chronic disease, itai itai, has been shown to be 

caused by contamination of water and rice crops by 

cadmium from the refinery (Kobayashi, 1972). Mulberry
64 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 31. Lead indicator and accumulator plants rooted in mineralized ground

Plant species

Indicator (] 

or 

accumulate:

Maximum lead content (in ppm) reported

r(A)

In plants

(ash) (dry weight)

In soil

(dry weight)

Reference

Conifers

Pseudotsuga menziesia 

(Douglas-fir twigs). 

Pseudotsuga taxifolia 

(Douglas-fir tips). 

Larix occidentalis 

(larch tips). 

Pinus monticola 

(white pine tips). 

Tsuga mertensiana 

(mountain hemlock twigs). 

Tsuga canadensis 

(Canada hemlock tips). 

Tsuga heterophylla 

(Pacific hemlock stems). 

Thuja occidentalis 

(eastern arborvitae tips). 

Thuja plicata 

(giant arborvitae stems). 

Picea sp. 

(spruce wood). 

Equisetum arvense 

(horsetail stalks). 

Do....................................

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A 

A

do ..........................................

do..........................................

New York (peats)

do ..........................................

Warren, N.H. (ore)...... .................

2,200 ........

....... 130

100

....... 100

4,000 .......

40

1,100 .......

19

3,100 .......

1,300

420 140 

344 86

20,000 

1,000 

20,000

10

13

21,000

Warren and Delavault (1960). 

Kennedy (1960). 

Do. 

Do.

H. T. Shacklette (written commun., 

1960). 

Cannon (1955).

Warren and Delavault (1960). 

Do. 

Do. 

Thyssen (1942).

Cannon, Shacklette, and Bastron 

(1968). 

Do.

Deciduous trees

Alnus crispus 

(American green alder). 

Alnus sinuata 

(Sitka alder) 

Populus sp. 

(cottonwood twigs). 

Do................................ .. .

Betula populifolia 

(gray birch). 

Do......................................

Betula glandulosa 

(birch stems). 

Salix sp. 

(willow root). 

Betula lutea 

(yellow birch twigs).

A 

A 

I 

A

A 

I

A 

A 

A

do..........................................

\Visconsin

5,000

4,000 .......

.400 45 

5,000

25,000 .......

17,300 .......

4,600 175

5,000

2,000

H. T. Shacklette (written commun., 

1960). 

Do.

A. V. Heyl (oral commun., 1948).

Cannon and Anderson (1971). 

H. T. Shacklette (written commun., 

1960). 

A. V. Heyl (oral commun., 1948). 

Warren and Delavault (1960).

Thyssen (1942). 

Cannon (1971).

Shrubs

Calluna sp. 

(Alaskan heather). 

Vaccinium canadense 

(dewberry fruit). 

Holodiscus discolor 

(rockspirea leaves). 

Ledum palustre 

(Labrador tea, twigs).

A 

A 

A 

A

Warren, N.H. ...............................

3,000

238 81

77

600

21,000 

20,000 

»600

H. T. Shacklette (written commun., 

1960). 

Cannon, Shacklette, and Bastron 

(1968). 

Kennedy (1960).

Salmi (1959).

Herbs

Arenaria (Minuartia) verne 

(leadwort). 

Portulaca oleracea 

(common purslane). 

Ambrosia elatior 

(common ragweed). 

Arctium minus 

(small burdock). 

Polycarpea glabra 

(pink). 

Tusilago farfara 

(coltsfoot;. 

Baptisia bracteata 

(wild indigo).

A 

A 

A 

A 

IA 

I 

I

"rVnrfrh \\J^t IP»C

New York (pest)

do ..........................................

do ..........................................

47,000 .......

42

50

58

'67 

»250 

»110

H. V. Warren (written commun., 

1972). 

Cannon, Shacklette, and Baston 

(1968). 

Do.

Do.

Nicolls. Provan, Cole and 

Tooms (1964-65). 

Linstow (1929); Dorn (1937).

H. L. Cannon (unpub. data, 1948).
LEAD IN VEGETATION 

TABLE 31. Lead indicator and accumulator plants rooted in mineralized ground Continued

65

Plant species

Indicator (I) 

or 

accumulator (A)

Maximum lead content (in ppm) reported

Locality In plants In soil

(ash) (dry weight) (dry weight)

Reference

Herbs Continued

Polycarpea synandra v. gracilis 

(pink). 

Gomphrena canescens

(globe amaranth flowers).......

(globe amaranth stems)..........

Bulbostylis barbata 

(bulletwood). 

Eriachne mucronata 

Campanula alpina 

(alpine bellflower).

IA 

IA

IA

IA

IA

IA 

IA

do......

do ......

do......

do......

do ......

.................................... ....... ....... 5,000

.................................... ....... 49 5,000

.................................... ....... 114 5,000

.................................... ....... 51 5,000

.................................... ....... 50 .......

.................................... 1,000 ....... .......

Cole (1965).

H. E. King (written commun., 

undated). 

Do. 

Do. 

Nicolls, Provan, Cole, and 

Tooms (1964-65) 

Do. 

Starikov, Konovalov, and 

Brushtein (1964).

Grasses

Molinia altissima

(Indian grass). 

Deschampsia flexuosa 

Agrostis tennis (subsp.) 

Calamagrostis epigeios

(reed grass).

IA Innerstetal, Germany................... 35,600

I Norway......................................... 2,000

I North Wales................................. .......

A Poland.......................................... >100

Thyssen (1942).

99 17,200 Lag and B^lviken (1974).

....... Jowett (1964).

....... Sarosiek (1959).

Dryopteris cristata

(woodfern). 

Dryopteris spp.

Pryopteris spirulosa ................

Cephalozia bicuspidata. ...........

A

A

A

I

^^e\v Bruns\vick

Ferns

...................... ....... 30 71

...................... 4,100 410 23,300

Liverwort

19Q nno

Cannon, Shacklette, and Bastron

(1968). 

Lag and B<J>lviken (1974).

Schmidt (1955).

Shacklette (1965).

Algae

Spirogyra type. A Warren, N.H................................ 9,420 6,600 (2) Cannon, Shacklette, and Bastron

(1968).

2Water in which algae were growing contained 16 ppm total heavy metals.

growing on the hills above the refinery contained 41-160 

ppm lead in the dry weight of the leaves, depending on the 

distance from the refinery. Leafy vegetables contained 

4.4-260 ppm lead in the dry weight, root vegetables 

< 0.02-63 ppm, and fruits of vegetables < 0.4-11.0 ppm. A 

particular moss that covers the garden soils contained 370 

ppm lead in the dry weight, 7,010 zinc, and 61 ppm 

cadmium. The lead uptake thus varies with species and 

plant part as well as distance. It was observed that the 

principal source of metals in the vegetation was by 

absorption through the roots from polluted soil rather 

than from direct deposition of metals from the air.

A comprehensive study by the U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency was conducted in the Helena Valley 

area of Montana to determine the effects on vegetation of 

pollutants from the American Smelting and Refining Co. 

smelter (Hindawi and Neely, 1972). The lead content of 

vegetation was found to decrease with distance from the 

stack. Gordon (1972) reported samples from east Helena of 

plants and the soils in which they were grown to contain

lead in the dry weight, in parts per million, as follows:

Vegetation Soil 

lead lead

Washed lettuce................................ <10- 26 49- 550

Unwashed lettuce............................ 26-460 370-1,400

Conifer needles................................ 40-125 370-1,100

Hindawi and Neely (1972) grew alfalfa, pinto beans, 

carrots, beets, petunias, and tobacco in greenhouses in 

vermiculite, exposing the growing plants to ambient air, 

and in garden soils outdoors, at the same distances from 

the stack, in order to test how much lead might be absorbed 

from the soil and how much from the air in the vicinity of a 

smelter. Their results, reported for unwashed produce, in 

parts per million, are as follows:

Distance from

(mi)

0.4

.8

2.5

4.5

smelter

(km)

0.6

1.3

4.0

7.2

Vermiculite

(A)

7.4

3.0

1.5

.6

Local garden Absorbed from

soil

(B)

48.3

5.4

3.0

1.0

soil

(B-A)

'40.9

2.0

1.5

.4

'Believed to reflect contamination by duststorm that arose during sampling.
66 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

If one assumes that the plants grown in vermiculite in 

the greenhouse but receiving ambient air are receiving the 

same atmospheric lead insult as the outdoor plants, then 

by subtraction it would appear that about half of the lead 

measured in unwashed produce may be absorbed from the 

soil and half from the air.

During the 19th century, several parts of Wales were 

intensively mined for lead. Fields adjacent to and downstream from the mines became contaminated by airborne 

and waterborne heavy-metal compounds; these fields still 

contain high concentrations of these metals. Work by 

Alloway and Davies (1971) showed that herbage, 

consisting largely of the grasses Festuca andLolium, and 

soils in this area have the following lead contents in parts 

per million dry weight:

Soil (total)........ ..........

Soil (available1 )..........

Range

....... 30- 100

....... 90-2,976

........ 16-1,020

Mean

63.2

1,652.0

323.8

Standard 

deviation

24 5

878.3

292.7

'Acetic acid extractable.

Radishes were then grown in 15 gardens of north 

Cardiganshire, some close to and some remote from mines. 

The radishes had lead contents ranging from 4.6 to 33.1 

ppm dry weight, with a mean content of 13.1 ppm and 

standard deviation of 7.4.

Lagerwerff, Brower, and Biersdorf (1972) collected soil 

and grass samples along 4 transects extending 6,684 feet 

(2,400 m) from a smelter in Galena, Kan., near the 

Missouri border, after the smelter had discontinued operations involving lead production. In the direction of 

prevailing winds, lead content of the unwashed grass 

ranged from 98.4 ppm (dry weight) at 1,082 feet (330 m) 

from the smelter to 16.2 ppm at 6,684 feet (2,400 m). They 

also observed that the pastures near the smelter had been 

invaded by switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and 

broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus}, which are both 

tolerant of the combination of low pH and high heavymetal concentration in the soil.

In 1968 the U.S. Geological Survey sampled birch and 

oak trees, their humus, and the alluvium in which they 

were growing, along a stream in a forested mining area 

near Joplin, Mo.; old mine diggings and pits were visible 

under the undergrowth. Although this locality had no air 

contamination from lead at the time of sampling, concentration of lead in the bark was comparable to that in the 

first-year twigs. The lead content was higher in the birch, 

which is an accumulator, than in the oak. Results of the 

study are as follows (number of samples collected are given 

in parentheses):

Lead (ppm) 

In ash In dry weight

Betula lutea (birch) (2):

Leaves....................................... 345 25.0

Twigs (Ist-year)....................... 4,600 175.0

Wood........................................ 900 14.0

Bark.......................................... 2,900 73.0

Roots........................................ 1.600 50.0

Lead (ppm) 

In ash In dry weight

Quercus muhlenbergia (oak) (2):

Leaves....................................

Twigs (Ist-year)....................

Wood.....................................

Bark.......................................

Humus.........................................

Alluvium......................................

140

1,200

375

1,500

6.4

48.0

9.4

178.0

1,700.0

2,000.0

Smelters and refineries, commonly located in wellpopulated areas, may contribute considerable amounts of 

lead to the atmosphere; this airborne lead, in turn, 

contaminates the soil and vegetation. Warren, Delavault, 

and Cross (1966) found as much as 1,600 ppm lead in the 

ash of birch leaves growing 3 miles (5 km) from the Trail 

smelter in British Columbia.

Studies have been made by the U.S. Geological Survey 

near several zinc-lead smelters. Analyses of plants and soils 

collected near the Bartlesville, Okla., and Leadville, Colo., 

smelters are given in table 32. The tree sampled at 

Leadville was the nearest pine to the smelter able to grow 

in the contaminated soil and was considerably dwarfed. 

The smelter had not been operative for 15 years at the time 

of sampling.

TABLE 32. Lead contents of plants and soils as related to smelter contamination in Colorado and Oklahoma

[Leaders (...) indicate no data. From Cannon and Anderson (1971); analysts, T. F. Harms 

and C. S. E. Papp]

Lead (ppm)

Sample No. 

D413-

Material analyzed Converted 

to dry wt

Bartlesville, Okla. 

1,500 ft (460 m) from smeller

387

410

411

406

407

390

388

389

408

409

Populus deltoides*(cottonwood),

Populus deltoides (cottonwood),

Populus deltoides (cottonwood),

1-5 in. (2.5-12.7 cm) soil ....................

7,000 ft (2,100 m) from smelter

Asparagus officinalis (asparagus),

Soil ......................................................

120

190

. 500

. 2,500

. 2,500

120

40

. 200

. 1,000

. 125

11.2

2.5

34

7.2

2.4

11

Leadville, Colo. 1 

1,000 ft (300 m) from smelter

452 Carix sp. (sedge), tops. 500 49

3,200 ft (975 m) from smelter

453

454

Pinus edulis (pine), needles...........

Pinus edulis (pine), branch wood 

(including bark).........................

2,500 40

18,000 342

'Smelter inoperative since 1956.
LEAD IN VEGETATION 67

LEAD ACCUMULATION RELATED TO AGRICULTURAL 

ACTIVITIES

Contamination of the soil due to agricultural activities 

stems generally from efforts to reclaim or increase the 

fertility of the land, or from sprays used on crops to combat 

insect or fungal infestation. Tailings from lead-zinc mines 

are occasionally used for fertilizer, but a study by Hawkes 

and Lakin (1949) in east Tennessee where such practice is 

common showed that the amounts added were small and 

did not affect the level of lead in the soil. Residual lead can 

be detected in soils that have been sprayed in the past and 

this lead may be translocated to the edible parts of produce. 

Warren (1961) compared trees in orchards in Okanogan 

County, Wash., that had been sprayed 10 years earlier with 

trees that had never been sprayed. The unsprayed trees 

contained less than 1 ppm lead whereas sprayed trees 

contained 40, 50, and 100 ppm. A garden in Canadaigua, 

N.Y., which had been sprayed repeatedly, but which was 

well protected from street contamination, was sampled by 

the author and found to contain 300 ppm lead in the soil, 

700 ppm in the ash (44 ppm in dry weight) of raspberry 

canes, and 300 ppm lead in the ash (12 ppm in dry weight) 

of the berries.

LEAD ACCUMULATION RELATED TO URBAN 

AIR POLLUTION

The effects of lead in the atmosphere on the lead content 

of vegetation were pointed out by Warren and Delavault 

(1960), who found higher values in Canadian plants 

collected near roadsides than in those remote from roads. 

Warren and Delavault (1962) further investigated this 

anomaly by sampling similar vegetation in two localities 

in England in an area of Sussex remote from a road and 

in London. Their results for twigs of the previous year's 

growth showed these lead contents, in parts per million:

Species Sussex locality London locality

Yeco (needles)....... 

Willow..................

Birch. ....................

Oak.......................

Ash .......................

Hazel ....................

Dry weight

0.4

.4 

1.0

1.0

.8

2.0

2.0

Ash

8

7 

35

36

30

30

50

Dry weight

5

6 

2

8

20

14

52

Ash

50

100 

30

IfiO

280

160

680

In Maryland the lead content of the ash of vegetables 

collected near roads was also shown to be higher than that 

of vegetables farther from roads (Cannon and Bowles, 

1962), as shown in the following table (analyst, E. F. 

Cooley):

Distance from road

(ft)

1- 25

25- 50

50-500

>500

(m)

4-8

8-16

16-160

>160

Number of samples

analyzed

29

29

45

28

Lead content (ppm)

Mean

80

66

45

20

Range

10-500

10-700

<10-150

< 10-200

To test the significance of these findings, Cannon and 

Bowles (1962) sampled grass in four directions for 1,000 

feet (304 m) from major highways in the Denver area in 

early June of 1961. The samples were washed in tapwater 

and analyzed using an emission spectrograph. The lead 

contents along all four traverses decreased logarithmically with distance from the highway, from 30 ppm to a 

background of 2 ppm at 900 feet (274 m). In 1969, the 

samples were re-collected in early June along the only 

traverse remaining in pasture. The lead content had risen 

about 1,000 percent and had spread considerably farther 

from the highway. The highest lead content, 222 ppm dry 

weight, was found at a distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) from the 

highway, and grass at 1,000 feet (304 m) contained 28 ppm 

(fig. 11) (Cannon and Anderson, 1971). Washed grass 

contained less than unwashed, although the samples were 

collected during a period of heavy rains.

Salmi (1969) reported a decrease in lead content of 

Sphagnum tuscum (moss) on the surface of a bog at 

distances of 0-984 feet (0-300 m) from a road in Finland. At 

about 33 feet (10 m) on one traverse, 27 ppm lead was 

measured, in contrast to a norm of 2 ppm. Purves and 

Mackenzie (1969,1970) reported on significant differences 

in lead content of herbage in parklands of Scotland. The 

mean for rural herbage was 30.3±2.3 ppm and that for 

urban (Edinburgh) herbage was 44.6±4.2 ppm in dry 

weight. On the other hand, the inner leaves of cabbage 

collected from rural and urban areas showed significant

1000

3.05

METRES

61.0 305

100

10

FEET

DISTANCE FROM HIGHWAY (WEST 6TH AVENUE, DENVER, COLO.)

FIGURE 11. Lead in grass collected for 1,000 feet (304 m) from highway 

in 1961 and 1969.
68 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

differences in boron, molybdenum, and zinc, but none in 

lead. Unwashed privet leaves were collected by Everett, 

Day, and Reynolds (1967) in areas close to and remote from 

highways in England. Leaves near highways had an 

average of 86 ppm dry weight, and leaves remote from 

highways had an average of 45 ppm dry weight.

A U.S. Geological Survey study in Missouri (Connor, 

Erdman, and others, 1971) found that roadside contamination has a much greater effect on the lead content of vegetation than it does on soils or rock outcrops. Thirty-two 

samples of cedar and 60 samples of grass were collected 

from locations both on (< 50 ft (15 m) away) and off (> 500 

ft (152 m) away) secondary roads. The collections from 

these locations consisted of the terminal branches of cedar 

(Juniperus virginiand) and above-ground portions of 

grasses at a specified stage of development. The mixed 

grasses were mostly Triodia flavens, Festuca elatior, and 

Setaria viridis. The samples, which were not washed, were 

analyzed by emission spectrography. The results are 

shown in table 33. The differences in both cedar and grass 

are significant at the 0.05-ppm probability level; those in 

subsoils and rocks are not. These data show that lead 

reported in roadside soils is confined to surface soils, and 

that soils at a depth of several inches are unaffected. Cedar, 

which is an evergreen and thus exposed to contamiination throughout the year, contained no more lead than 

did the grass. That cedar is an accumulator of lead was 

shown by one sample collected near Centerville, which 

contained 1,200 ppm lead dry weight (Connor, Shacklette, 

and Erdman, 1971). Further investigation has shown a 

geometric mean of 348 ppm dry weight in 15 cedar samples 

from the area. It is believed that the soil here has been 

contaminated by ore dust from trucks transporting ores 

from mine to smelter. These data can be compared with 

those of Lagerwerff and Specht (1970), who sampled grass 

at 8, 16, and 32 feet (about 2, 4, and 9 m) from major 

freeways near Washington, D. C., and soil at these sites at 

depths of 0-5, 5-10, and 10-15 cm. Lead contents in grass 

and soil decreased with distance; the levels of lead in grass 

ranged from a maximum of 68.2 ppm dry weight at 8 feet (2

TABLE 33. Comparison of lead content between on-road and off-road

samples of some soils and plants in Missouri 

[Data from Connor, Erdman, and others, 1971; analyst, Harriet Nieman]

Locality

Various..................

Do........... .......

Kansas City, Mo... 

Do..................

Pacific, Mo...........

Do..................

Sample Number of 

type samples

.. Cedar branch tips.

.. Soil.......................

.. Grass.....................

.. Soil .......................

.. Soil.......................

32 

32 

30 

30 

30 

30

1 Lead content (ppm)1

On-road2

16

17 

29.0 

10 

17.0 

10.0

Off-road3

7 

14

9.7 

14

4.5 

3.5

'Dry weight, geometric mean. 

2Samples taken <50 ft (15 m) from road. 

'Samples taken >500 ft (152 m) from road.

m) lo a minimum of 7.5 ppm at 32 feet (9 m) and in surface 

soil ranged from 540 ppm to 55 ppm. The data also show a 

reduction in lead content with depth. Dedolph, Ter Haar, 

Holtzman, and Lucas (1970) were able to correlate the 

amounts of lead in grass with concentrations in air. At 40 

feet (12m) from the road, the air contained 2.3 JLI g/m3 and 

the grass averaged 15 ppm dry weight, and at 120 feet (36 

m), the air contained 1.7 jug/m3 and the grass 8.4 ppm 

lead.

An increase in the lead content of plant foliage in the 

winter months has been reported by several workers and 

generally attributed to increased exposure time to airpollution lead. Mitchell and Reith (1966) found an 

increase in pasture herbage from 1 ppm lead (dry weight) 

in early autumn to 30-40 ppm in the winter. However, 

they attributed the increase to either a translocation of lead 

from roots to tops during the winter months or a loss of 

organic matter through respiration rather than to surface 

contamination from the air.

The effects of washing on the lead values varies with 

season and rainfall conditions. In the study reported by 

Cannon and Anderson (1971), on grass collected in the 

spring shortly after a heavy rain, no great difference in lead 

content between washed and unwashed samples was 

noted. Ganje and Page (1972) compared the lead content of 

washed with unwashed samples of lima-bean leaves and 

pods, corn leaves, sugar-beet leaves, and tomato fruits 

collected in California near the Santa Ana and Riverside 

Freeways; they found a 30-70 percent decrease, depending 

on such factors as the extent of plant surface exposed, 

roughness of surface, and duration of exposure. Motto, 

Daines, Chilko, and Motto (1970) also found a ±40 percent 

decrease in washed grass collected within 225 feet (68 m) of 

highways. Rains (1971), on the other hand, could not wash 

lead from Avenafatua (wild oats) that had grown in a leadfallout region, nor could he extract it with water. He was, 

however, able to extract 50 percent with 0.01 M HC1 and 95 

percent with 0.01 M NH4 EDTA.

Whether the lead that cannot be washed from roadside 

plants is absorbed directly from the air through the leaves 

or is taken up from the contaminated soil has been 

debated. Certainly there can be no doubt concerning 

absorption from the air in regard to Tillandsia usneoides 

(Spanish moss), which has no root system and obtains all 

essential elements from the atmosphere. Analyses of 123 

samples of Spanish moss collected by H. T. Shacklette 

(written commun., 1971) from the Atlantic and Gulf 

Coastal Plain areas ranged from 3.2 to 230 ppm lead in dry 

weight and had a geometric mean of 192 ppm; the contrast 

between samples from urban industrial areas and rural 

areas indicated the influence of atmospheric pollution in 

raising lead levels. Wherry and Buchanan (1926), who 

analyzed Spanish moss for some of the essential plant 

nutrients, found no difference between washed and 

unwashed samples. Martinez, Nathany, and Dharmarajan
LEAD IN VEGETATION 69

(1971) in most instances found no significant difference 

between unwashed samples of Spanish moss and those 

washed with ammonium acetate, but were able to extract 

more than one-third of the lead from a sample collected 

near a four-lane highway. These plants, however, have a 

highly developed system for extracting nutrients from the 

air and cannot be considered as representative of the entire 

plant kingdom.

Ruhling and Tyler (1968) grew plants from roadside 

seed in contaminated soils obtained near highways. The 

plants contained only 5-10 ppm lead in the dry weight of 

the plant, whereas the same species of weeds that grew in 

the same soils along the roadside contained 68-950 ppm 

lead in the dry weight of washed samples. These data 

indicate absorption of lead from the atmosphere. Crops 

were grown by Ter Haar (1970) both in greenhouses 

supplied with filtered and ambient air and in plots planted 

in rows perpendicular to a busy highway. Of the 10 crop 

plants studied, only leaf lettuce, bean leaves, and the husk 

of sweet corn showed significant increases in lead content 

in unfiltered air compared to filtered air. In crops grown 

30-520 feet (9-158 m) from a highway, soybeans and snap 

beans also showed higher lead contents nearer the 

highway. He concluded from these studies that natural 

lead in the soil is the main source of lead in edible crops 

and that airborne lead contributes only 0.5 to 1.5 percent of 

the lead content of the U.S. diet. More sophisticated 

experiments (Dedolph and others, 1970) at the Argonne 

Laboratory consisted of growing six harvests of ryegrass 

and three harvests of radishes in chambers ventilated with 

filtered and unfiltered air and in a field adjoining a 

highway traversed by about 29,000 vehicles per day. The 

data obtained from analyses of coded samples were 

subjected to statistical evaluation. Clearly defined 

differences in plant-lead content attributable to differences 

in the lead concentration of the atmospheric environment 

could be discerned in leaves of both species. Lead-enriched 

water applied to the plants had no effect on their lead 

content. Atmospheric lead had no effect on the lead 

content of the root or edible portion of the radish. They 

concluded that the radish and rye leaves contain on the 

order of 2.5 ppm lead dry weight, which is soil derived. 

Lead concentrations above this base level (maximum 15 

ppm) reflect the average lead concentration in the 

atmosphere in which the plants were grown.

Schuck and Locke (1970) investigated crops routinely 

grown in fields near highways in the vicinity of Riverside, 

Calif., and concluded that lead paniculate particles are not 

absorbed but exist as a topical dust coating, of which at 

least 50 percent can be removed by washing. In a cauliflower head, interior florets contained less lead than did 

the outer florets; maximum amounts were contained in 

the outer leaves of cabbage heads growing 25 feet (7 m) 

from the highway. No evidence of absorption through the

roots from water or from the high-lead soils that had been 

treated in the past with lead arsenate was observed.

Zimdahl and Arvik (1972) believed that the leaf cuticle is 

a primary barrier to entrance of atmospheric lead into the 

leaf and plays a more important role than stomatal 

penetration. Experiments with penetration of lead 

through cuticle membrane from leaves and fruits showed 

that less than 1 percent of the lead is able to penetrate the 

cuticular barrier. Whether atmospheric lead can be 

absorbed through the stomata of the leaf and translocated 

to other parts of the plant has not been determined, 

although lead isotopic studies should be able to resolve 

this question. Chow (1970) has shown that the isotopic 

composition characteristic of gasoline lead is of greater 

abundance in grass near highways and in surface soils 

than in soils at depth. Ault, Senechal, and Erleback (1970) 

studied tree rings and found no significant difference in 

isotopic ratio (Pb206/Pb204 ) with age. The ratios in all rings 

of wood were lower than that of roadside grass or of 

gasoline lead. The lead abundance in the outermost tree 

rings (0.34 ppm) was twice that of the 15- and 30-year-old 

rings (0.15 ppm). Either the uptake of lead was less in the 

past or lead is removed from the xylem layers after 

formation perhaps along the radial ray cells of the 

woody part of the tree.

Algae, mosses, lichens, and others of the lower planl 

groups, because of their slow growth and unusually high 

concentrations of metals, have been proposed by several 

scientists as indicators of lead contamination. Ruhling 

and Tyler (1968) suggested that mosses growing on trees in 

urban areas be used as an index for surveying deposition of 

airborne heavy metals. They found that the contents of 

lead in mosses in southern Sweden had risen from about 25 

to 100 ppm from 1860 to 1968. Martinez, Nathany, and 

Dharmarajan (1971) suggested that Spanish moss, which 

is not a true moss but a highly specialized epiphytic angiosperm, be used as a sensor for lead in the Gulf States; they 

were able through this medium to establish gradients from 

line-and-point sources to pollutants. Rains (1971) found a 

particular species of Avena fatua (wild oats) to be highly 

tolerant of lead and suggested its use as an indicator.

Two sources of pollution-caused lead in the atmosphere that have not been mentioned in previous sections 

have been reported in British Columbia and England. 

Warren, Delavault, Fletcher, and Wilks (1971) described 

an episode in Richland, B.C., in 1970, when dust falling in 

a particular area of the town was found to contain 4.2 

percent lead, soil within a radius of a few hundred feet 

contained as much as 4,000 ppm lead, and forage grown in 

this locality contained from 1.5 to 8.5 percent lead in the 

ash. Lead in unwashed vegetables contained as much as 

6.5 ppm in wet weight but a maximum of 0.6 ppm after 

washing. Although, for the most part, the lead is not 

absorbed into the plant tissue, the lead on the plants was 

being consumed by cattle. The industrial plant credited
70 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

with being the source of the lead pollution has been closed 

voluntarily until control devices can be installed. Dunn 

and Bloxam (1932) reported on livestock deaths in 

England, which, although widely separated, were all on 

pastures near coke ovens. Soil downwind from the ovens 

contained as much as 7 ppm lead and grass contained as 

much as 46 ppm in the dry weight. Soils and grass upwind 

from the ovens had considerably lower lead contents. 

Further analysis showed the chimney soot to contain 342 

ppm lead and the flue soot, 68 ppm.

SUMMARY

Plants absorb available lead from soils. Natural lead in 

plants growing in uncontaminated and unmineralized 

areas averages 2 ppm in the dry weight. As much as 350 

ppm lead has been measured in the dry weight of vegetation rooted in soils developed from rocks containing lead 

ores; concentrations of as much as 664 ppm have been 

reported in vegetation subjected to the industrial and agricultural activities of man. A large percentage of lead in soil 

is not available to plants, and only in mining areas where 

high lead levels in soils occur is the growth of plants 

seriously affected. Of greater environmental significance 

is atmospheric lead from lead smelters, other types of 

industrial plants, and automobile emissions. Concentrations of lead in or on plants exposed to contaminated 

air decrease logarithmically with distance from the source. 

There is no clear evidence that lead from the atmosphere 

enters into the plant, except in the case of Spanish moss, 

which is highly specialized for absorbing atmospheric 

elements into the plant tissue. Washing and preparation 

of vegetables reduces the lead content to levels acceptable 

for human consumption, with the possible exception of 

lettuce and other leafy vegetables that are consumed raw; 

however, atmospheric lead in or on forages remains a 

hazard to livestock. Lead levels are increasing markedly 

and should be monitored on a continuous basis in urban 

and industrial areas.

REFERENCES CITED

Alloway, B. J., and Davies, B. E., 1971, Heavy metal content of plants 

growing on soils contaminated by lead mining: Jour. Agr. Sci. 

[Cambridge], v. 76, p. 321-323.

Ault, W. U., Senechal, R. G., and Erlebach, W. E., 1970, Isotopic 

composition as a natural tracer of lead in the environment: 

Environmental Sci. and Technology, v. 4, no. 4, p. 305-314.

Bolter, E., Hemphill, D., Wixson, B., Butherus, D., and Chen, R., 

1972, Geochemical and vegetation studies of trace substances from 

lead smelting, in Hemphill, D. D., ed., Trace substances in 

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72 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

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LEAD IN THE ATMOSPHERE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIALLY 

OCCURRING LEAD, AND THE EFFECTS OF LEAD ON HEALTH

By H. L. CANNON

The amount of lead introduced into the environment 

from natural sources appears to be small compared to that 

made available in one way or another by man. This lead, 

in turn, is being absorbed by man at rates estimated by 

Patterson (1965) to be 30 times higher than inferred 

natural rates. Any discussion of lead in the environment 

must consider, therefore, the sources and effects of 

contamination lead in the world today. We are all exposed 

to lead in the air we breathe and in the food and water we 

ingest; furthermore, workers in particular industries and 

residents of particular areas are also exposed to occupational and industrial lead.

NATURAL ATMOSPHERIC LEAD

The amount of lead from natural sources that is released 

into the atmosphere is small, as shown by the following 

estimates by Patterson (1965):

Source Lead (plg/ms)

Silicate dust from soils...................................... 0.0005

Volcanic halogen aerosols................................. .00003

Volcanic silicate smoke...................................... .000006

Forest fire smoke................................................ .000006

Aerosolic sea salts .............................................. .000001

Meteorites and meteoritic smoke....................... .000000002

The calculation of these values involved many assumptions, and the total of about 0.0005+ IJL g/m3 in the atmospheric reservoir is probably low. One source of lead in the 

atmosphere that may be important in mineralized areas is 

the exudate from vegetation. Curtin, King, and Mosier 

(1974) showed that heavy metals, including lead, are given 

off in vapor by vegetation; lead in condensed tree exudate 

measured from 1 to 12 ppb. Although the exudate in nonmineralized areas has a much lower lead content, the 

overall contribution is considerable. A small amount of 

lead is also released from the decay of radioisotopes. 

Inasmuch as emanations from the volcano, Mauna Loa, 

Hawaii, affect the general circulation of the trade winds, 

Kruger (1969) measured Pb210 levels as a means of studying 

atmosphere chemistry and transport processes. The 

comparatively large values of Pb210 in Hawaii indicate that 

little is removed from the atmosphere during the trade 

wind transport over the open ocean. The release of Pb210 

from radon decay has been estimated at 2,260 x 10~12 curies 

per m2 per year for annual rainfall in Great Britain, with a

mean air residency time of about 4 weeks (Hill, 1960). 

Because of man's widespread contamination of the air 

with lead throughout the world, data on natural levels of 

lead in the atmosphere are difficult to obtain. Certainly, in 

noncon taminated areas of the world, lead in the 

atmosphere averages less than 0.01 jug/m3 and perhaps 

less than 0.001 /ug/m3 . A median lead value of 0.019 /ugm3 was reported by the U.S. National Air Pollution 

Control Administration (1968) from 29 nonurban collections made in 1965; likewise, no significant lead (< 0.001 

in g/m3 ) was detected in the fourth quarter of that year at 

six stations in remote areas of the country, using especially 

sensitive methods of analysis.

LEAD CONTAMINATION OF THE AIR

Although the quantity of lead ingested from food and 

water is much higher than that taken in from urban air, 

inhaled lead is much more readily absorbed; probably 

some 20-40 percent of lead absorbed is derived from the air 

(Carroll, 1970). In general, the higher the atmospheric 

level the higher the blood level of lead and, presumably, 

the total body burden. The differences in the concentrations of lead in surface air collected by the Atomic 

Energy Commission along their 80th Meridian network in 

1967 are shown in table 34 (Harley, 1970).

In data compiled by McCaldin (1966), mean 

atmospheric lead concentrations for particular sets of 

samples ranged from 0.3 ng/m3 of lead in 149 samples 

from suburban stations of the National Air Sampling 

Network to 44.5 ng/m3 in 7 samples collected from 

Boston's Sumner Tunnel. Lazrus, Lorange, and Lodge 

(1970) reported on atmospheric precipitation samples 

collected from a nationwide network of 32 stations in the 

United States. The lead values averaged for each station 

ranged from 0 to 138 g of lead deposited on 1 hectare by 1 

cm of precipitation.

An increase with time in lead in the atmosphere has 

been shown by Murozami, Chow, and Patterson (1969) 

who studied the annual ice layers in dated sections in 

northern Greenland. The lead content of the ice was less 

than 0.0005 IJL g/kg in 800 B.C.; 0.01 ju g/kg in 1750, at the 

beginning of the Industrial Revolution; 0.07jug/kg in

73
74 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 34. Lead concentrations in surface air in 1967 from selected

sites along the 80th Meridian 

[Data from U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (cited in Harley, 1970)]

Site sampled Latitude Lead

(ng/m3 )

Thule, Greenland.............................................. 70° N. <0.01

Moonsonee, Canada........................................... 56° N. 0.06

New York, N.Y.................................................. 41° N. 2.5

Sterling, Va........................................................ 39° N. .74

Miami, Fla......................................................... 26° N. 1.7

Bimini, Bahama Islands.................................... 26° N. 0.10

San Juan, P.R.................................................... 18° N. 0.80

Balboa, Panama................................................. 9° N. 0.23

Guayaquil, Ecuador........................................... 2° S. 0.35

Lima, Peru......................................................... 12° S. 0.50

Chacahaya, Peru................................................ 16° S. 0.09

Antofagasta, Chile............................................. 24° S. 0.06

Santiago, Chile.................................................. 33° S. 0.87

Puma Arenas, Chile........................................... 53° S. 0.06

1940; and 2.5 jug/kg in 1965. Lead contents of Antarctic 

ice are much lower, probably because much less lead is 

introduced by man into the air of the southern hemisphere 

than into that of the northern hemisphere.

Estimates of the residence time of lead in air range from 

1 to 4 weeks depending on the size of the paniculate matter 

with which the lead is associated (Lagerwerff, 1972). 

Measurements of aerial concentrations of Pb210 show an 

upward transport of the finer particulates into the troposphere and beyond. The aerosols then travel toward the 

poles, where they become concentrated and sink again into 

the atmosphere. The cycle is closed by surface air currents 

which move toward the equator.

The most significant contribution of lead to the 

atmosphere is from the combustion of leaded gasoline, as 

table 35 shows. According to TerHaar and Bayard (1971) 

the lead originates in the antiknock fluid, which contains 

PbBr 2 , PbBrCl, Pb(OH)Br, (PbO) 2PbBr 2 , and 

(PbO)2PbBrCl. Afterburning, the compounds recombine, 

so that after 18 hours 75 percent of the bromides and 30-40 

percent of the chlorides disappear, and the proportion of 

lead carbonates and lead oxides are increased. A study of 

the aerosols in Fairbanks, Alaska, by Winchester, Zoller,

TABLE 35. Lead emissions in the United States, 1968

[Data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (cited in National Research Council,

1972)]

Lead emitted

Emission source

Fuel oil combustion...............................

Brass manufacturing..............................

Lead oxide manufacturing....................

Gasoline transfer....................................

(tonnes/yr)

............ 181,000

920

............ 24

............ 810

............ 174

............ 811

............ 521

............ 20

............ 36

............ 184,316

(tons/yr)

199,000

1,000

26.5

890

192

892

573

22

39.5

202,635

Duce, and Benson (1967) showed that although the weight 

ratio ClrPb averages close to that of ethyl fluid (0.34) the 

Br:Pb ratio is 4 times less than that of ethyl fluid (0.39). 

This information supports the theory that lead halide 

particles, formed initially by combustion of ethyl fluid, 

lose bromine by oxidation and volatilization. The extent 

of the lead contribution to the atmosphere from ethyl 

gasoline was proved by Chow and Johnstone (1965), who 

determined that the isotopic composition of the lead from 

ethyl gasoline and of aerosols from the Los Angeles basin 

were the same. The lead from car exhaust was identified 

also in mountain snows and in the surface waters of the 

ocean. This identification followed a joint study by the 

U.S. Public Health Service and the petroleum industry of 

the lead in the atmosphere of three cities Cincinnati, 

Philadelphia, and Los Angeles which was conducted 

from June 1961 to May 1962 (Ludwig and others, 1965), 

during which time 3,400 samples were collected from 20 

stations. They found an average concentration of 1.4 ngm3 in Cincinnati, 1.6 ng/m3 in Philadelphia, and 2.5 ngm3 in Los Angeles. Concentrations as high as 44 ng/m3 

were measured in a vehicular tunnel. The highest concentrations were found during the autumn and winter 

months and in the early morning hours. Other studies in 

the United States and elsewhere have substantiated these 

findings. Temperature inversion phenomena in San 

Diego, which prevent the vertical movement of air above 

the base of the inversion layer, were studied by Chow and 

Earl (1970). Although pollution in San Diego is relatively 

low compared to that of other cities, average weekly lead 

concentrations of as much as 8 ng/m3 were measured.

A study by Daines, Motto, and Chilko (1970) has shown 

that a relationship exists between the amount of lead in the 

air and traffic volume, proximity to the highway, engine 

acceleration, and wind direction. They also found that 

traffic markedly affected lead content of air only in a 

relatively narrow zone along the highway, with the lead 

content decreasing more than 50 percent in the interval 

from 10 to 150 feet (3 to 46 m). Ault, Senechal, and 

Erlebach (1970) demonstrated that there are significant 

differences in lead isotopic ratios found in rock, soils, 

grasses, tree leaves, normal air particulate, and those 

found in coal, fly ash, gasoline, and fuel oil. The Pb206 / 

Pb204 ratio of 18.2 in air within 500 feet (152 m) of a 

turnpike approached that of gasoline (18.3), whereas at 

greater distances the ratio averaged 18.7.

A less serious source of atmospheric lead is in fly ash 

which originates mainly from the burning of coal by 

power plants, steel mills, cement plants, and other 

industries. In a recent U.S. Geological Survey study of the 

coal and fly ash produced by power plants in the Southwest Energy Program, it was found that coal being 

produced for 10 power plants had a median content of 50 

ppm lead in ash (73 samples), with a range of 30-200 ppm. 

Bottom ash had a median content of 30 ppm, with a range
LEAD IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE EFFECTS ON HEALTH 75

of 20-30 ppm; fly ash had a median content of 50 ppm lead 

with a range of 20-70 ppm. At the Four Corners plant, in 

San Juan County, N. Mex., fly ash collected in the stack 

was compared with the effluent falling on vegetation and 

soil of the surrounding area. The fly ash in the stack 

averaged 70 ppm lead and the effluent only 20 ppm. 

Analyses of the top one-half inch of soil along two 6.5-mile 

(10.4-km) traverses from the power plant indicated, for 1.5 

miles (2.4 km), a lead content above the 20 ppm reported by 

Shacklette, Hamilton, Boerngen, and Bowles (1971) as 

average for U.S. soils, but the lead value at no point was 

greater than 30 ppm (Cannon and Anderson, 1972).

A major but relatively local source of atmospheric lead 

is the effluent from mining and smelting operations. 

Djuric, Kerin, Graovac-Leposavic, Novak, and Kop( 1971) 

reported on a detailed study of lead levels in air, water, 

plants, and urine in the environs of a lead smelter in 

Yugoslavia. The smelter lies in a basin, has been operative 

since 1746, and currently produces 22,000 tons (19,8001) of 

lead annually. The stack had no filtering devices until 

1969. Samples of air collected in 1967 from three villages in 

the valley had a lead content ranging from 1.3 to 84.0 ng/ 

m3, with considerable variation on different sampling 

dates. Lead contents in soils ranged from 91 to 24,880 mg/ 

kg, compared with 0.8-37.4 mg/kg in unconlaminated 

soil. The river that received effluent from the smelter 

ranged in lead content from 685.12 mg/1 at the smelter to 

2.89 mg/1 22 km below the smelter. Above the smelter the 

river contained only 0.001-0.02 mg/1. Analyses of food and 

forage show relatively low lead levels in peeled produce 

but high levels of lead in lettuce and hay; the lead levels in 

hay are toxic to cattle if the hay is used exclusively and 

continuously as forage. Milk, meat, and honey were also 

contaminated, the lead content in milk being 40 times the 

national average in the United States. Lead in the environment is being absorbed by the inhabitants at levels 

sufficient to induce a physiologic response.

A study has been made of the distribution of lead around 

two smelters in Toronto, Canada, and of blood lead levels 

in the local families. The lead fallout was shown to 

originate from episodic large-particulate emissions from 

near-ground sources rather than from stack fumes. 

Between 13 and 30 percent of the children living in the 

contaminated areas had absorbed excessive amounts of 

lead, but probably the lead was ingested from 

contaminated dusts rather than from drinking water, 

home-grown vegetables, air, or paint pica. Of the children 

who had absorbed excessive lead, most of those selected for 

special study showed metabolic changes; 10-15 percent of 

this selected group showed subtle neurological 

dysfunctions and minor psychomotor abnormalities 

(Roberts and others, 1974).

Cases of lead poisoning have been reported among 

workers and residents near a lead smelter in India where 

the daily flue emissions contained almost 2,000 Ib (900 kg)

of lead; in Colombia, families living in lead foundries 

exhibit chronic symptoms, and many children die from 

lead poisoning (Haley, 1969).

Lead poisoning in 75 children in Smeltertown, an area 

of 120 families near El Paso, Tex., where lead has been 

smelted since 1887 (Wall Street Journal, 1972a, b), has 

recently shown the urgency of the problem in this country. 

An intensive monitoring program has been initiated to 

study the effects on the environment of the so-called New 

Lead Belt (Wixson and others, 1972) in Missouri, which 

accounted for more than 80 percent of the total United 

States lead production in 1973. Lead levels in soils, air, 

plants, and water are being carefully checked and the 

effects of lead pollution on grazing animals are being 

studied. Long-term studies should contribute much to our 

knowledge of the long-range effects of low-level lead 

contamination on the health of animals, including man.

Cigarettes represent a minor but common source of lead. 

Although most of the lead remains in the ash, an intake of 

20 ng per pack from the smoke has been estimated by 

Horton (1966). Studies by the Air Pollution Control 

Administration have demonstrated that in urban areas 

smokers have 1.24 times more blood lead than nonsmokers 

and in rural areas, 1.42 times more blood lead (Hofreuter, 

1960).

LEAD CONTAMINATION OF WATER AND FOOD

Pollution lead may be ingested from several sources. A 

main source of lead poisoning in underprivileged children 

is pica, or an abnormal craving to ingest odd things 

including fragments of lead-based paint from cribs and 

walls (Haley, 1969). A decrease in plumbism from this 

source can be expected as current laws ordering the 

substitution of titanium-based paints on nursery furniture 

become effective. Cooking in earthenware pottery with a 

lead glaze or the use of such pottery as containers for acid 

foods can be a cause of lead poisoning (Klein and others, 

1970). Vegetables and fruits are easily contaminated by 

lead-arsenate sprays and, although less lead arsenate is 

used than formerly, a buildup of the metals occurs in the 

soils of old orchards where a reservoir of lead is available to 

crops long after the use of lead arsenate has ceased. Experimental work by Jones and Hatch (1945) showed that crops 

grown in soil taken from an orchard with a spray record of 

22 years assimilated from 1 to 3 times more lead in the 

above-ground portions and 2 to 8 times in the belowground portions than the same crops grown in unsprayed 

soil; a maximum lead value of 35 ppm in dry weight of 

peeled eggplant was recorded.

Lead may also be introduced into cultivated land 

through the use of tailings from lead-zinc mines or of 

high-lead limestones for fertilizer. Warren, Delavault, and 

Cross (1966) have reported on the use of a limestone 

containing 45 ppm lead for fertilizer on land which then 

produced oats containing 3-4 ppm lead in the dry weight.
76 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

The soil and veget ition in the vicinity of mining 

operations (even tiough long defunct) may be 

contaminated by waste and spoil piles. The lower part of 

the Tamar Valley district of west Devon and Cornwall in 

Great Britain is a richly mineralized area which was mined 

for base metals in the ] 9th century. Soils from pastures and 

gardens contain unusually high contents of lead; garden 

soils had a maximum of 522 ppm total lead and 36 ppm 

available lead (extractable with acetic acid) (Davies, 1971). 

Radishes were used as a convenient test crop to measure 

actual uptake. They contained as much as 74 ppm lead in 

the ash. Davies (1972) concluded that the inhabitants of 

this valley are exposed to a greater lead insult than similar 

populations elsewhere in Great Britain.

Drinking water standards have been set by the U.S. 

Public Health Service at 0.5 mg/1 maximum for lead. 

Although ground-water lead levels have remained 

relatively unaffected, man has increased lead in surface 

waters through agricultural practices, fallout of lead 

alkyl aerosols, contact with scrap and waste heaps, and 

mining activities. However, according to Patterson (1965), 

in rural areas the atmospheric washout of lead alkyl 

products should immediately be fixed in the clay fractions 

of the soil and thus make little contribution to the surface 

waters except through storm sewers. Sewer treatment 

plants contribute lead to surface waters, although about 65 

percent of the lead in drinking water is removed in treatment processes, according to Horton (1966). He stated that 

lead is frequently present in unfiltered surface waters at 

levels well above the maximum permissible concentration but is generally much lower in filtered water. 

Analyses of 42 sewage sludges from rural and industrial 

towns in England and Wales show very large concentrations of certain trace elements. The sludges contained 

from 120 to 3,000 ppm lead and had a median content of 

700 ppm in dry weight (Berrow and Webber, 1972).

Contributions of lead to ground and surface waters from 

rainfall can range as high as 0.49 mg/1 in areas of 

industrial contamination or high traffic volume. 

However, Lazrus, Lorange, and Lodge (1970) have shown 

that there is, on the average, twice as much lead in 

atmospheric precipitation as in municipal water supplies, 

suggesting that the lead precipitates or is adsorbed on 

suspended matter and is thus filtered out in processing. 

Ettinger (1966) showed maximum lead in surface water to 

be associated with metal-working and chemical 

industries, but concluded that only a fraction of the lead in 

surface water remains dissolved.

Lead piping and lead solder used with copper tubing 

may also be a significant source of lead in water distribution systems. According to Patterson (1965) many of our 

largest cities use lead pipe exclusively for water service 

connections. She has estimated a per capita contribution 

of 5 jug/l of lead from lead used in water distribution 

systems.

EFFECTS OF INGESTED LEAD ON LIVESTOCK

In animals, the toxic effects of lead ingested in 

contaminated vegetation have often been noted. Horses, 

especially young ones, are particularly susceptible to lead 

poisoning. Chronic lead poisoning in six foals on three 

different properties within 5 miles (8 km) of the Trail 

smelter in British Columbia and subsequent poisoning of 

introduced horses has been described by Schmitt and 

others (1971). The symptoms were loss of weight, muscular 

weakness, stiffness of joints, and harsh, dry coats. A 

thorough investigation showed that young horses were 

more susceptible than old horses, and that lead rather than 

zinc, arsenic, or cadmium was the cause of the illness. Soil, 

forage, and blood levels of the horses on the three 

properties were as follows:

Property

A

B

C

Distance from

smelter

(miles)

2.0

1.5

.5

Lead in top

1 inch soil

(ppm)

750

620

2,900

Lead in forage

(ppm dry weight)

38

90

264

Mean lead in

blood

(jig/100 g)

22.6

31.6

37.6

In all but a few fruits and vegetables grown within 5 miles 

(8 km) of the smelter, lead concentrations were considered 

to be acceptable for human consumption, and humanurine lead levels were not elevated.

The death of four horses that had been corralled on the 

tailings pond of an old gold mine near Evergreen, Colo., 

was investigated by D. M. Sheridan and H. L. Cannon of 

the U.S. Geological Survey (unpub. data, 1970). The 

drinking water for the horses contained high concentrations of fluorine but the autopsy report showed lead 

poisoning. A noxious weed, Grindelia squarrosa, evident 

in the hay fed to the horses, which had been cut at a city 

country club, was subsequently found to contain 1,540 

ppm lead in the dry weight. Inasmuch as the grass in the 

hay contained only 5.2 ppm, Grindelia appears to be an 

accumulator of toxic levels of lead.

Horses subsequently died in a pasture near Centerville, 

Mo., where 15 samples of cedar were reported by Connor, 

Shacklette, and Erdman (1971) to contain as much as 1,200 

ppm lead in the dry weight, with a geometric mean of 348 

ppm dry weight. The area was believed to have been 

contaminated by lead from ore trucks.

An outbreak of acute lead poisoning among cattle 

pastured near a lead smelter was studied by veterinarians 

from the University of Minnesota (Hammond and 

Aronson, 1964). The forage contained 148-285 ppm lead 

in the dry weight. Acute bovine lead poisoning resulted 

from long-term continuous intake of contaminated 

forage, whereas horses in the same environment responded 

by long-delayed onset of the classical syndrome of chronic 

equine plumbism. These and other case histories suggest 

that airborne lead absorbed by and adhering to plants may 

be more hazardous to grazing animals than to man.
LEAD IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE EFFECTS ON HEALTH 77

OCCUPATIONAL LEAD

Plumbism from occupational lead used in automobile 

body manufacture and repair, foundries, electrotype 

printing, storage battery manufacture, secondary smelters, 

and munition plants was a hazard in this country before 

1945. Improved occupational practices since that time and 

the introduction in 1945 of safe working standards for lead 

levels in air and urine have been responsible for decreasing 

exposure to airborne lead in dust and fumes by several 

orders of magnitude (Stokinger, 1966). In a study of 

workers who are regularly exposed to gasoline additives, it 

was found that garage mechanics show elevated lead levels 

in urine, but the levels are below the present acceptable 

limits. Although inhalation intoxication and skin absorption have caused problems in other countries (Haley, 

1969), controls instituted in the United States have resulted 

in safe handling of lead alkyls, tetraethyl lead, and tetramethyl lead during manufacture. Nevertheless, after the 

manufactured products leave the plant, they may still pose 

a hazard through careless handling by the consumer; for 

instance, acute plumbism among children has been caused 

by burning old battery cases for fuel in fireplaces and 

cookstoves (National Research Council, 1972).

The contributions of lead to the environment that result 

from man's activity are much greater, therefore, than the 

lead that is available in the environment from natural 

sources. Considerably improved controls and monitoring 

programs are indicated.

ABSORPTION AND EFFECTS OF LEAD 

ON HEALTH

The human body tends to discriminate against the 

heavier metals in favor of the lighter, using the lighter in 

metabolic processes and being poisoned by the heavier 

(Patterson, 1965). The chemistry of lead is similar to that 

of barium in its behavior in the body, particularly in 

regard to deposition in and mobilization from the 

skeleton.

Lead in animals (including man) is concentrated largely 

in bone, although small amounts of lead occur in other 

types of tissue. Amounts that have been reported are as 

follows (Haley, 1969):

Tissue Lead (ng/100 g)

Long bone.......................................................... 670-3,590

Flat bone............................................................ 210-1,110

Liver................................................................... 40- 280

Kidney................................................................ 15- 160

Muscle................................................................ 10- 170

Brain................................................................... 10- 90

Bone represents the greatest storage site of lead, which is 

bound to bone by absorption or exchange at the surfaces of 

bone salt crystals, or is combined with the sulfate in the 

organic matrix. However, according to work by Kehoe 

(1961), the average individual appears to be in lead 

balance; the body burden of lead is established early in life 

and does not change appreciably throughout the life span.

Haley (1969) reported lead concentrations in blood from 

10 to 26 jug/ml; however, the lead levels of blood can be 

raised experimentally to as much as 450 jug/100 g by 

heavy dosages in food and air, with accompanying 

increases in urinary and fecal lead (Kehoe, 1964). Lead 

interferes with normal maturation of erythroid elements 

in the bone marrow and inhibits hemoglobin synthesis in 

precursor cells (Kench and others, 1952). Lead also affects 

prophyrin metabolism and interferes with the activity of 

several enzymes.

Although less than 10 percent of lead ingested by man is 

absorbed, 20-25 percent of respiratory intake may be 

retained and absorbed. Epidemiologic studies of blood 

lead levels show a logarithmic regression on estimated 

atmospheric exposure, according to Goldsmith and 

Hexter (1967), who postulated that further increases in 

atmospheric lead will result in predictable, progressively 

higher lead levels in the population. In a group of workers 

who were exposed to industrial lead and who had blood 

lead levels of 0.045-0.14 mg/lOOg, the serum transaminase 

activity was increased, suggesting that subclinical liver 

impairment may occur at levels below the "safe" level of 

0.07 mg/100 g (Hofreuter, 1960). Experiments by 

Schroeder, Vinton, and Balassa (1963) with lead-fed rats 

showed increased mortality rates in both sexes and renal 

and hepatic accumulations of lead similar to those in adult 

humans. However, there is evidence that the average 

intake of lead from food has not changed from its level 

during the three-decade period prior to 1965, because the 

increase in environmental lead in food has been balanced 

by the decrease in use of lead in agricultural chemicals and 

in food processing and packaging (Lewis, 1965).

In children, overt manifestations of acute lead 

poisoning, plumbism, differ from those of adults, and the 

mortality rate is relatively high. Symptoms may include 

anemia, gastrointestinal distress, and encephalopathy. 

The last may result in early death, permanent symptoms of 

brain damage, or complete recovery (Haley, 1969). Adult 

or chronic lead poisoning requires years to develop to the 

critical level, which is recognizable by symptoms such as 

headache, muscle pains, constipation, abdominal 

tenderness, colic, weight loss, and fatigue (Johnstone, 

1964). Kidney damage from lead has not been identified in 

the United States although it is commonly reported in 

European countries; this difference may be due to poorer 

industrial hygiene in European countries. Renal lesions, 

which may be caused by lead ingestion, have been shown 

to lead to hypertension and may also predispose to gout as 

a result of defective urate secretion (Emmerson, 1965). An 

important symptom of chronic plumbism is the neuromuscular involvement, usually of the extensor muscles, as 

in wrist drop. Chronic exposures to lead in the water 

supply have been shown to result in increased miscarriages and stillbirths; the pregnant woman and her
78 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

fetus are highly susceptible to lead poisoning (Wilson, 

1966).

The poisoning of industrial workers with organic lead 

alkyls tetraethyl or tetramethyl lead causes a different 

set of symptoms called the acute brain syndrome. These 

symptoms include irritability, insomnia, emotional 

instability, tendon reflexes, and tremor. Delusions and 

hallucinations may occur (Sanders, 1965). However, lead 

alkyls decompose rapidly and are largely handled physiologically as inorganic water-soluble lead (Tepper, 1966). 

Although, according to Haley, there are no documented 

cases of lead poisoning in children or adults attributable to 

airborne lead from the combustion of leaded gasoline, 

continuous monitoring has been advised and realistic lead 

tolerance levels advocated after further study.

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LEAD IN THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE EFFECTS ON HEALTH 79

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ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF LEAD

By F. N. WARD and M. J. FISHMAN

DETERMINATION OF LEAD IN SOILS AND ROCKS

Methods of chemical analysis with enough sensitivity to 

measure the low concentrations of lead in soil an rock 

samples are numerous. Such methods are based on 

familiar operations of optical emission spectrography, Xray spectrography, molecular absorption (colorimetry), 

and atomic absorption. In a review of available methods, a 

certain amount of judgment has to be exercised in 

choosing those to be discussed; accordingly, the following 

discussion will be devoted to the methods most commonly 

used by the U.S. Geological Survey.

OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROGRAPHY

Optical emission spectrographic methods are used to 

determine the lead content of soils, rocks, and minerals at 

the 5- to 10-ppm level, with a relative standard deviation of 

10-20 percent. Such precision is attained with a semiquantitative procedure variously designated as the threestep or six-step semiquantitative spectrographic method. 

Better precision is attained with strictly quantitative 

procedures, but the semiquantitative methods are so 

widely used in the Geological Survey that some discussion of them is in order.

Quantitative data are achieved by comparing the spectra 

from unknown soil and rock samples with spectra of 

standard mixtures obtained under identical conditions of 

instrumental parameters, sample handling, and so on. 

The standard spectra are produced from mixtures of 

different amounts of pure compounds incorporated in 

matrices whose chemical compositions are similar to those 

of the host materials of the unknowns. The mixtures of 

pure compound plus matrix material are accordingly 

referred to as standard mixtures or simply as standards.

Within an order of magnitude, the concentration of lead 

in standards differs by a common factor, the cube root of 10 

(Myers and others, 1961; Barnett, 1961). An explanation of 

the theoretical basis of this common factor is beyond the 

scope of this paper. It suffices to say that within an order of 

magnitude a series of lead standards would contain the 

following amounts of lead: the first standard, 1 percent; the 

second standard, 0.464 percent; the third, 0.215 percent, 

and so on.

Ward and others (1963) stated that these values could be 

rounded off respectively to 1, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.1 percent. 

Within an order of magnitude change in lead concentration, three standards were used and the method was 

called a three-step semiquantitative spectrographic 

method. The differences between the standards were called 

concentration ranges, and these ranges were rather broad. 

Many spectrographers felt that by inserting additional 

standards at the logarithmic midpoints of these ranges 

they could achieve better precision and accuracy. The 

method henceforth became known as a six-step semiquantitative spectrographic method.

After using both three-step and six-step procedures for a 

few years many Survey spectrographers concluded that the 

value of the additional midpoint standards for obtaining 

more accurate results was debatable and that the time 

required to prepare the midpoint standards as well as the 

extra space required on the photographic plate might 

offset any advantage.

Currently both methods are used in the Geological 

Survey, although most appraisal studies and exploration 

programs need only the three-step, or three-standards, 

procedure.

In applying the method, the spectrographer prepares a 

standards plate having spectral lines produced by lead 

concentrations of 1.0, 0.5, 0.2, and 0.1 ppm, and he 

designates the midpoints of the ranges delineated by these 

standards as 0.7 0.3, and 0.15 ppm, respectively. He 

compares the spectral line of lead from an unknown with 

the line produced by one of these standards or, if the 

unknown lies at a midpoint between two standards, with 

the range delineated by two standards lines. This range is 

often called a bracket and the midpoint further specified as 

the geometric midpoint.

Shacklette and others (1971, p. 225) described this 

method for reporting semiquantitative results as follows.

The values obtained by spectrography were reported in geometric 

brackets having boundaries 1.2, 0.83, 0.56, 0.38, 0.26, 0.18, 0.12 and so 

forth, percent; the brackets are identified by their respective geometric 

midpoints, 1.0,0.7,0.5,0.3,0.2,0.15, and so forth. Thus, a reported value 

of 0.3 percent for example, identifies the bracket from 0.26 to 0.38 percent 

as the analyst's best estimate of the concentration present. The precision 

of a reported value is approximately plus or minus one bracket at the 68-

81
82 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

percent level of confidence, and plus or minus two brackets at the 95- 

percent level.

The lead content of the unknown is thus reported with 

one of the following numbers: 1.0, 0.7, 0.5, 0.3, 0.2, 0.15, 

and 0.1, and the reported value for lead will always be one 

of these numbers expressed as a power of 10 that depends 

on the relative concentration.

Ideally, the composition of the matrix or material to 

which pure lead compounds are added to form this series 

of standards should approximate the composition of the 

samples as closely as possible, especially with regard to 

major components. These major components cause 

changes in the sample excitation, which, along with the 

spectral lines and physical nature of the samples, affect 

spectral lines and intensities of the lead analyte. These 

effects are magnified because of the predominance of the 

matrix in the standard mixture. For highest accuracy, 

therefore, standards would have to be incorporated in 

several different kinds of matrices for instance, gossan, 

silicate, or carbonate and ultimately the number of 

standards would become unwieldy.

In practice, a compromise is made, and most lead determinations are made on the basis of standards prepared in 

one or two matrices modified to approximate the vast 

number of geologic materials analyzed. Further modifications such as the addition of graphite to the 

unknown sample in a 2:1 ratio are made to promote 

uniform excitation and inhibit the effect of major 

components in the matrix.

In these semiquantitative methods, spectra of 

unknowns are compared visually with spectra of 

standards, and occasionally faulty comparisons along 

with possible computational errors give rise to shocking 

results which usually prove embarrassing. Aware of these 

possibilities, spectrographers of the U.S. Geological 

Survey worked for several years to develop systems in 

which human participation was minimized and as many 

operations as possible were performed instrumentally. 

The problem was twofold. First, they had to make an 

instrument to read the line intensities recorded on the 

plates; however, each plate is unique and has to contain 

built-in flagging so that the instrument will measure the 

intensity of the most appropriate line or lines of the 

elements of interest including lead. Second, the Survey 

spectrographers had to devise computer programs to 

perform as many computations as possible, including 

corrections for matrix and background, and present the 

final readout in a format useful to geologists. The 

computer program was devised first and is described by 

Helz, Walthall, and Berman (1969); the instrument 

development came later and is given by Helz (1973). Subsequent applications and improvements are described by 

Dorrzapf (1973).

X-RAY SPECTROGRAPHY

In the U.S. Geological Survey, lead determinations are 

made routinely by X-ray spectrographic methods. These

methods are not generally considered as trace methods, but 

after chemical pretreatment sensitivities as low as 50 ppm 

with a relative standard deviation of about 20 percent are 

achieved.

MOLECULAR ABSORPTION (COLORIMETRY)

For more than 25 years, trace amounts of lead in soils 

and rocks have been determined by molecular absorption 

methods. The common name for this 

process colorimetry is descriptive, but the process is 

one of absorption. Under specific conditions lead reacts 

with certain organic reagents for instance, dithizone to 

form colored species which can be extracted into 

immiscible solvents such as carbon tetrachloride or 

xylene.

The absorption of the colored species by these solvents 

occurs maximally at discrete frequencies, and the amount 

of absorption can be related to the concentration of lead in 

the soil or rock sample.

Molecular absorption methods of lead analysis are so 

numerous that a thorough review is beyond the scope of 

this paper, but procedures included by Sandell (1959) 

illustrate some of the available methods. For real samples 

of igneous rocks the sensitivity of the method is as low as 1 

ppm (Thompson and Nakagawa, 1960).

Rapid field methods based oi^the reaction of lead with 

dithizone have a sensitivity limit of 20 ppm, which is 

adequate for reconnaissance studies.

ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY

Atomic absorption methods for lead in soils and rocks as 

used in our laboratory were described by Ward and others 

(1969). Sensitivities as low as 1 ppm are routinely achieved, 

and under special conditions, such as by using a Delves 

spoon, the sensitivity can be lowered by one or two orders 

of magnitude.

Some typical lead values determined routinely by an 

atomic absorption method are as follows: five repeat determinations on a sandstone yielded 12-16 ju g/g lead, with a 

relative standard deviation of 12 percent; corresponding 

values on a granite were 22-24 jug/g, with a relative 

standard deviation of 5 percent.

ELECTRON PROBE

The electron probe is useful for determining lead 

concentrations greater than about 0.1 percent. In ordinary 

soils and vegetation and in many rocks, the lead concentration is too low for measurement by the probe. In 

minerals, however, the local concentration of lead may 

easily exceed the threshold amount, and the probe is most 

useful for determining such enrichments.

DETERMINATION OF LEAD IN VEGETATION

One routine spectrographic method for determining 

lead in plant ash calls for mixing equal parts of ash with 

quartz to simulate the silicic matrix in which the standard 

powders are incorporated. The obvious advantage is that
ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF LEAD 83

the same standard plates can be used on plant ash and 

silicic rock samples. The obvious disadvantage is that the 

sensitivity given above for lead in soils and rocks by optical 

emission spectrography is only 10-20 ppm. This 

sensitivity is adequate for many species of vegetation, but 

is inadequate for some specific applications.

Recently Mosier (1971, 1972) incorporated standard 

powders in a plant-ash base and, with a split-slit 

technique using a Hartmann diaphragm and a step filter 

assemblage, achieved a simultaneous recording of 35 

elements including such volatile elements as silver, 

arsenic, bismuth, antimony, and others. Using this 

procedure Mosier determined amounts as small as 1 ppm 

lead in plant ash, with a relative standard deviation of 20 

percent.

Trace amounts of lead in organic matter can also be 

measured by analytical methods based on molecular 

absorption (colorimetry) and atomic absorption. Methods 

based on X-ray spectrography may also be used after 

special sample treatment, but many different species 

contain less than threshold amounts and such X-ray 

methods are less useful than other procedures discussed 

here.

Molecular absorption methods for determining lead in 

vegetation are similar to those for soils and rocks except in 

sample size and treatment before analysis. Usually a 2-g 

sample of air-dried and ground vegetation is used; the 

minimum lead content that can be determined is near 0.25 

ppm.

Atomic absorption methods for lead in vegetation are 

again similar to those for lead in soils and rocks, except in 

sample size and treatment. Ashing is necessary and can be 

accomplished either with oxidizing acids or by ignition in 

a muffle furnace at temperatures of 450°-500°C under 

controlled conditions to avoid losses.

Detection limits for lead of 0.02 ju g/ml are quoted in the 

literature (Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 1971). Such limits 

are achieved with conventional atomic absorption techniques, but with a flameless procedure, Fernandez and 

Manning (1971) detected as little as 0.4 jug/1. Ward and 

others (1969) defined sensitivity in more practical terms, 

and, using a new procedure, they achieved a sensitivity of 1 

ju g/g in plant ash. Five samples of fir ash contain 30-60 

ju g/g lead. On the basis of 4 percent ash, these values are 

equivalent to 1.2-2.4 jug/g lead in air-dry sample.

DETERMINATION OF LEAD IN WATER

The literature on analytical methods for the determination of lead in water is voluminous. U.S. Geological 

Survey personnel have periodically reviewed the literature 

of analytical chemistry applied to water analysis; the last 

such review was published in 1973 (Fishman and 

Erdmann, 1973). These reviews are a good source of 

references to published descriptions of analytical 

procedures for lead, and we will not attempt to duplicate

these references here. The principal methods used by the 

U.S. Geological Survey for determining lead in aqueous 

solutions are atomic absorption spectrophotometry and 

emission spectroscopy. For example, the analyses for this 

report, which were performed by U.S. Geological Survey 

personnel using these techniques, and which are described 

by M. J. Fishman (this volume), were determined on water 

samples filtered at the time of collection through 0.45- 

ju m-membrane filters and acidified with nitric acid to a 

pH less than 3.

Atomic absorption spectrophotometric methods are 

being used routinely for the direct determination of many 

trace elements; however, lead normally occurs in freshwater at concentrations less than can be directly detected 

by atomic absorption. Therefore, a preconcentration 

procedure is essential if lead is to be determined by atomic 

absorption. Brown, Skougstad, and Fishman (1970) 

described a rapid simple accurate and sensitive preconcentration procedure in which lead is chelated with 

ammonium pyrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) at a pH 

of 2.8, and the chelate is then extracted with methyl 

isobutyl ketone (MIBK). The extract is aspirated into the 

flame of an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Water 

containing from 1.0 to 20.0 ju g/1 lead may be analyzed by 

this procedure; higher concentrations must be reduced by 

dilution. None of the substances commonly occurring in 

natural water interferes with this method. Fishman and 

Midgett (1968) reported that results obtained by this 

procedure are in good agreement with those obtained 

spectrographically.

With the emission spectrograph, lead in water is 

determined simultaneously with many other minor 

elements. Three methods are described by Barnett and 

Mallory (1971). The first method consists of evaporating 

the water and analyzing the residue, and is used for the 

analysis of samples whose dissolved-solids concentrations do not exceed about 1,000 mg/1. This method is 

sensitive, precise, and reasonably accurate. The lower 

limits of detection vary with the quantity of dissolved 

solids; however, in order to achieve lower limits of 

detection for water samples containing more than 1,000 

mg/1 dissolved solids, it is necessary to separate lead and 

other minor elements from the major constituents prior to 

analysis. In the second method, lead and 20 other metallic 

elements are precipitated with thioacetamide, and the 

resultant sulfides are converted to oxides and analyzed. 

With the third procedure, 18 elements, including lead, are 

precipitated by complexing with tannic acid, thionalide, 

and 8-hydroxyquinoline. The precipitates are ashed and 

the resulting oxides analyzed.

REFERENCES CITED

Barnett, P. R., 1961, An evaluation of whole-order, border, and Vsorder reporting in semiquantitative spectrochemical analysis: 

U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1084-H, p. 183-206.
84 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Barnett, P. R., and Mallory, E. C., Jr., 1971, Determination of minor 

elements in water by emission spectroscopy: U.S. Geol. Survey 

Techniques Water-Resources Inv. TWI 5 A2, 31 p.

Brown, Eugene, Skougstad, M. W., and Fishman, M. J., 1970, Methods 

for collection and analysis of water samples for dissolved minerals 

and gases: U.S. Geol. Survey Techniques Water-Resources Inv. 

TWI 5 Al, 160 p.

Dorrzapf, A. F., Jr., 1973, Spectrochemical computer analysis argonoxygen d-c arc method for silicate rocks: U.S. Geol. Survey Jour. 

Research, v. 1, no. 5, p. 559-562.

Fernandez, F. J., and Manning, D. C., 1971, Atomic absorption analysis 

of metal pollutants in water using a heated graphite atomizer: 

Atomic Absorption Newsletter, v. 10, no. 3, p. 65-69.

Fishman, M. J., and Erdmann, D. E., 1973, Water analysis: Anal. 

Chemistry, v. 45, no. 5, p. 361R-403R.

Fishman, M. J., and Midgett, M. R., 1968, Extraction techniques for 

the determination of cobalt, mickel, and lead in fresh water by 

atomic absorption, in Baker, R. A., ed., Trace inorganics in water: 

Washington, Am. Chem. Soc. (Advances in Chemistry Ser. 73), 

p. 230-235.

Helz, A. W., 1973, Spectrochemical computer analysis Instrumentation: U.S. Geol. Survey Jour. Research, v. 1, no. 4, p. 475-482.

Helz, A. W., Walthall, F. G., and Berman, Sol, 1969, Computer 

analysis of photographed optical emission spectra: Appl. 

Spectroscopy, v. 23, no. 5, p. 508-518.

Mosier, E. L., 1971, A method for semiquantitative spectrographic 

analysis of plant ash for use in bio-geochemical exploration [abs.]:

Soc. Appl. Spectroscopy Natl. Mtg., 10th, St. Louis 1971, Program, 

p. 65. 

_1972, A method for semiquantitative spectrographic analysis of

plant ash for use in biogeochemical and environmental studies: 

Appl. Spectroscopy, v. 26, no. 6, p. 636-641.

Myers, A. T., Havens, R. G., and Dunton, P. J., 1961, A Spectrochemical method for the semiquantitative analysis of rocks, 

minerals, and ores: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1084-1, p. 207-229.

Perkin-Elmer Corporation, 1971, Analytical methods for atomic 

absorption spectrophotometry [rev. ed.]: Norwalk, Conn., PerkinElmer Corp., 584 p.

Sandell, E. B., 1959, Colorimetric determination of traces of metals 

[3d ed.]: New York, Interscience, 1032 p.

Shacklette, H. T., Hamilton, J. C., Boerngen, J. G., and Bowles, J. 

M., 1971, Elemental composition of surficial materials in the conterminous United States: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 574-D, 

71 p.

Thompson, C. E., and Nakagawa, H. M., 1960, Spectrophotometric 

determination of traces of lead in igneous rocks: U.S. Geol. 

Survey Bull. 1084-F, p. 151-164.

Ward, F. N., Lakin, H. W., Canney, F. C., and others, 1963, Analytical 

methods used in geochemical exploration by the U.S. Geological 

Survey: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1152, 100 p.

Ward, F. N., Nakagawa, H. M., Harms, T. F., and VanSickle, G. 

H., 1969, Atomic-absorption methods of analysis useful in geochemical exploration: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1289, 45 p.
TABLES 36 & 37
86 LEAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT

TABLE 36 Normal lead content of some uncontaminated natural

substances 

[Estimated from data given in this report]

Material

Common rocks:

Gabbro. .........................................

Basalt.............................................

Schist.............................................

Sediments:

Soil......................................................

Fossil fuels: 

Coal...............................................

Oil.................................................

Common minerals:

Water:

Air........................................................

Vegetation:

Shrubs...........................................

Median

10

............. 15

............. 20

............. 5

.............. 15

.............. 60

.............. 15

............. 20

............. 3

............. 2

............. 25

25

............. 100

Normal range

pptn

Unknown

10 - 100 

10 - 100

- 25 

- 25 

- 50

- 40 

- 25 

10 SO 

3-50 

5-70 

3-15

5-40 

30 - 150 

5-50

3-30 

.005- 1

10 - 150 

5-50 

5 - 70 

5 - 100 

3-30 

- 10 

15

MS/'

0.1 

.1 

10 

.01

lig/m>

- 100 

- 50 

-1,000 

- 10

< 0.001- 0.1

ppm in ash

10 

10 

<10 

10 

10 

<10

- 100 

- 50 

- 50 

- 100 

-1,000 

- 30

TABLE 37. List of minerals and alloys in which lead (Pb) is 

a major constituent

[Compiled by Michael Fleischer. This list includes minerals considered to be valid or 

doubtful species. Minerals containing two anions are listed under both, with the exception 

of compounds containing halides. For example, hidalgoite, PbAlj(SO4)(AsO«)(OH)s, is 

listed both under sulfates and under phosphates, arsenates, vanadates, and antimonites; 

however, mimetite, Pb5(AsOi)sCl, is listed under phosphates, arsenates, vanadates, and 

antimonites, but not under halides. References for unnamed minerals, given in parentheses, show volume and page number of American Mineralogist where the mineral 

is described]

Name

Polarite. ......................................

Unnamed (v. 46, p. 464) .............

Unnamed (v. 53, p. 1063)..... .......

Arsemtes:

Carbonates:

Hydrocerussite.... .................

Formula

Alloys

............ PdsPb2

........... Pd(Pb.Bi)

........... Pd4Pb

........... Pd3Pb3Bi

Minerals

........... Pbs(AsO3)sCl

........... Pb8MnH(As03 )3

........... <Ca,Pb)Bi2 (COs) 202

........... PbsCu2(SO4 )3<C03) (OH) 6

........... PbC03

........... PbAl 2(CO8)2(OH)4 -2H2O

........... PbafCOaWOHU

TABLE 37. List of minerals and alloys in which lead (Pb) is a major 

constituent Continued

Name Formula

Minerals Continued

Carbonates Continued

Leadhiffite....................................... Pb4(SO4 ) (CO3 ) 2 (OH) 2

Nasledovite..................................... PbMn3Al(COs) 4 (SO4)O5

Phoseenite ...................................... Pb^COsJClj.

PiiHnbonacrite ................................ Pb10(C03)e(OH)eO(?)

SchuiKngrte. .................................... Pb3Ca«Cu2 (CO8)8(OH)e

Susannite.................................. Pb4 (SO4 ) (COs)2 (OH) 2

Wherryite........................................ Pb4Cu<COs) (SO4 ) 2 (Cl,OH) 2O

5H2O

 6H2O

Bideauxite........ ............................... Pb2AgCl 3 (F,OH) 2

Blixite............................................. Pb2Cl(0,OH) 2

Boleite............................................. Pb»Cu8Ag3Cl 2i(OH)le

Chloroxiphite... ............................... Pb3CuCl2(OH) 2O2

Cotunnite. ....................................... PbCl 2

Cumengite....................................... Pb4Cu4Cl 8 (OH) 8 HzO

Diabotehe.............. ......................... Pb2 CuCl2 (OH) 4

Fiedlerite......................................... PbaCU (OH) 2

Laurionite.............. ......................... PbCl(OH)

Lorettoite. .......................................

Matlockite ...................................... PbFCl

Mendipite ....................................... Pb3Cl2O2

Naderfie. ......................................... PbSbOsCl

Paralaurionite. .................................... PbCl(OH)

Penfieldite... .................................... Pb2Cl 3 (OH)

Percylite........... ............................... PbCuCl 2 (OH) 2

Petite .............................................. PbBiOaCl

Phoseenite ...................................... Pb2 (CO»)Cl 2

Pseudoboteite... ............................... Pb5Cu4Clio(OH) 8 2H2O

Pseudocotunnite ............................. K2PbCU(?)

Schwartzembergite........... ............... Pb6 (IO8)2Cl4O2 (OH) 2

Unnamed (v. 55, p. 1814) ............... PbeCle(IO3 ) 2O2

lodates:

Schwartzembergite.......................... Pb6 (IOs) 2Cl4O2 (OH) 2

Unnamed (v. 55, p. 1814)............... Pbe(IO3 )2Cl eO2*

Molybdates, tungstates:

Raspite........................ .................... PbWO*

Stokite............................................ PbWO4

Wulfenite ........................................ PbMoO4

Oxides:

Bindheimrte..................................... Pb2Sb2O6 (O,OH)

Cesarolite......... ............................... H2PbMn3O8

Clarkeite. ........................................ (Na,Ca,Pb)2U2 (O,OH)7

Coronadite...................................... Pb(Mn+2,Mn+*) 8Oie

Curhe.............................................. Pb^jA? 4H2O

FoHrmarierite.................................. PbU4Ois 4H2O

Hematophanite ............................... Pb4Fe4O9(OH,Cl ) 2

Litharge .......................................... PbO, tetragonal

Magnetoplumbite.................. .......... (Pb,Mn) 2 FeeOn

Massicot......................................... PbO, orthorhombic

Masuyite. ........................................ Pb,U oxide(?)

Metavandendriesscheite .................. PbUTO22 - nH^O, n less than 12

Minium........................................... PbsO4

Murdochite. .................................... PbCu8O8

Plattnerite. ...................................... PbO2

Plumboferrite............. ..................... PbFe4OT

Plumbopyrochlore. ......................... (Pb,Y,U,Ca) 2_xNb2O6(OH)

Quenselite............ ........................... PbMnO2 (OHJ

Rankamaite ....... ............................. (Na,K,Pb,Li)3(Ta,Nb,Al) n(O,OH)8o

Richetite. ........................................ Pb,U oxide(?)

Senaite............................................ (Fe,Mn,Pb)TiO3

Uraninke......................................... (U,Th,Pb)O2 +X

Vandendnesscheite.. ........................ PbUr^ 1211^

WBlsendarfite ................................. (pb.CaJU^T 2H2O

Unnamed (v. 55, p. 1816) ............... Pb8Oio

Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates, antimonites:

BayWonite............ ........................... PbCug (AsO4 ) 2(OH) 2

Beudantite....................................... PbFes(AsO4 )(SO4)(OH)6

Brackebuschite................................ Pb4MnFe(VO4 ) 4 2H2O

Carminite. ....... ................................ PbFe2 (AsO4 ) 2 (OH) 2

Caryinite. ........................................ (Ca,Na,Pb)s(Mn>Mg)4 (A8O4 ) 5

Chervetite .......................................

Corkite.. .......................................... PbFe3 (PO4 )(SO4 )(OH) 8

Curienite. ........................................ Pb(UO2 ) 2(VO4 ) 2 5H2O

De&cloizite ...................................... PbZn( VO4 ) (OH)

Dewindtite ...................................... Pb(UO2 ) 2 (PO4 ) 2 3H2O

Duftite ............................................ PbCu(AsO4 )(OH)

Dumontite ...................................... Pb(UO2 )s(PO4 ) 2 (OH) 4 3H2O

Ecdemite. ........................................ PbfiAs2O7Cl 4

Ferrazite ......................................... (Pb,Ba) 3 (PO4 ) 2 SHjjOC?)

Fornacite ........................................ (Pb,Cu)s [(Cr^As)O4]2 (OH)

Francevillite.................................... (Ba,Pb)(UOs.) 2(VO4 ) 2 5H»O

Gabrielsonite................................... PbFe(AsO4 )(OH)

Georgiadesite. ................................. Pb3 (AsO4 )Cl3

Grayite. ........................................... (Th,Pb,Ca)PO4 H2O

Hallimondite.... ............................... Pb2 (UOs.)(AsO4 ) 2
TABLE 37. List of minerals and alloys in which lead (Pb) is a major 

constituent Continued

TABLES 87

TABLE 37. List of minerals and alloys in which lead (Pb) is a major 

constituent Continued

Formula

Minerals Continued

Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates, antimonites Continued

Hedyphane...................................... (Ca,Pb) 5 (AsO4 )3CI

Hidafeoite....................................... PbAl3 (S04 )(As04 )(OH) 6

Hinsdahte ....................................... (PbSr)Al3 (PO4 )(SO4 )(OH) 6

Hbgehte.......................................... Pb2 (UO2 ) 3 (AsO4 ) 2 (OH) 4 3H2O

Lusungite........................................ (Sr,Pb)Fe3 (PO4 )2(OH)5 H2O

Mimetite......................................... Pb.,(AsO4 ) 3Cl

Mommohte. .................................... (Pb,Ca) 3Sb2O8 (?)

Mottramite .......................................... Pb(Cu,Zn)(VO4 )(OH)

Mounanaite .................................... PbFe2 (VO4 ) 2 (OH) 2

Parsonsite ....................................... Pb2 (UO2 ) (PO4 ) 2 2H2O

Plumbogummite ............................. PbAl3 (PO4 ) 2 (OH) 5 H2O

Przhevalskite.... ............................... Pb(UO2 ) 2 (PO4 ) 2 - 4H2O

Pyrobelomte ................................... PbMn(VO4 ) (OH)

Pyromorphite.................................. Pbs(PO4 ) 3Cl

Renardite........................................ Pb(UO2 ) 4 (PO4 ) 2 (OH) 4 7H2O

Sahlinite ........................................ Pbi 4 (AsO4 ) 2O9Cl4

Schultenite...................................... pbHAsO4

Tsumebite....................................... pb2Cu(PO4 )(SO4 )(OH)

Vanadinite ................................... Pb5 (VO4 ) 3Cl

Vauquelmite......... ........................... Pb2Cu(CrO4 )(PO4 )(OH)

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed

'

...... _ 34 )(S04 )(OH)

p. 1383)............... pbFe3 (As04 ) 2 (OH) 5 H2O(?)

A-,' p' *J|y Pb.Fe arsenate

\. 47, p. 418)................. PbZn arsenate

Silicates:

Alamosite........................................ PbSiOa

Barysilite......................................... Pb4MnSi3On

Ekanite........................................... (Th, U)(Ca,Fe,Pb) 2Si«O2o

Esperite........................................... (Ca,Pb)ZnSiO4

Ganomalite..................................... Pb3Ca2SiaOn

Hancockite...................................... (Pb,Ca,Sr) 2 (AI,Fe) 3 (SiO4 ) 3 (OH)

Hemihedrite.................................... PbioZn(CrO4 )6(SiO4 ) 2F2

Hyalotekite..................................... (Pb,Ca,Ba) 4BSi6Oi T (OH,F)

Jagoite............................................ Pb3FeSi3Oio (OH.C1)

Joesmithite...................................... (Pb,Ca,Mn) (Mg,Fe) 4Fe+3Si«O12

	(OH)4 (0,OH) 8

Kasolite........................................... Pb(UO2 )SiO4 H2O

Kentrolite........................................ Pb2Mn2 +3Si2O9

Larsenite......................................... PbZnSiO4

Margarosanite................................. Pb(Ca,Mn) 2Si309

Meknotekite................................... Pb2Fe2Si20»

Molybdophyllite............................. Pb2Mg2Si2OT (OH) 2

Nasonite.......................................... PbcCa4Si8O21Cl 2

Plumalsite....................................... Pb4Al2 (SiOs) 7

Roeblingite..................................... Pb2Ca7Si6Oi 4 (OH)i0 (SO4 ) 2

Wickenburgite................................. Pb3CaAl2SiioO24 (OH)6

Sulfates, chromates, selenates, selenites, tellurates:

Anglesite......................................... PbSO4

Beaverite......................................... Pb(Cu,Fe,Al) 3 (SO4 ) 2 (OH) 6

Beudantite....................................... PbFe3 (AsO4 )(SO4 )(OH) 6

Caledonite....................................... Pb5Cu2 (SO4 ) 3 (CO3 )(OH)6

Corkite............................................ PbFe3 (PO4 ) (SO4 ) (OH) 6

Crocoite.......................................... PbCrO4

Demesmaekerite.............................. Pb2Cu5(UO2 ) 2 (SeOs) 8 (OH)6 2H2O

Fleischerite...................................... PbsGe(SO4 ) 2 (OH) 6 SHaO

Fornacite........................................ (Pb,Cu) 3[(Cr,As)O4]2 (OH)

Hemihednte.................................... PbioZn(CrO4 ) 6 (SiO4 ) 2F2

Hidalgoite....................................... PbAl3 (SO4 )(AsO4 )(OH) 6

Hinsdalite....................................... (Pb,Sr)Al3 (PO4 )(SO4 )(OH) 8

Iranite............................................. PbCrO4 H2O

Itoite............................................... Pb3Ge(SO4 ) 2O2 (OH) 2

Lanarkite........................................

Leadhillite............ ........................... Pb4 (SO4 )(CO3 ) 2 (OH) 2

Linarke. .......................................... PbCu(SO4 )(OH) 2

Moctezumite................................... Pb(UO2>(TeO3 ) 2

Molybdomenite.. .................................. PbSeOs

Nasledovite..................................... PbMnaAl4 (CO3 ) 4 (SO4 )O5 5H2O

Olsacherite...................................... Pb2 (SeO4 ) (SO4 )

Osarizawaite ................................... PbCuAl2 (SO4 ) 2 (OH) 6

Palmierite ....................................... (K,Na) 2Pb(SO4 ) 2

Phoenicpchroite....... ....................... Pb2Cr2O5

Plumbojarosite................................ PbFe6 (SO4 ) 4 (OH) 6

Roeblingite..................................... PboCa7Si6Oi 4 (OH)i0 (SO4 ) 2

Schmeiderite ............ ....................... (Pb,Cu) 2SeO4 (OH) 2 (?)

Susannite........................................ Pb4 (SO4 )(CO3 ) 2 (OH) 2

Tsumebite....................................... Pb2Cu(PO4 )(SO4 )(OH)

Vauquelinite............................ ........ Pb2Cu(CrO4 )(PO4 )(OH)

Wherryite .............................. Pb4Cu(CO3 )(SO4 ) 2 (Cl,OH) 2O

Unnamed (v. 51, p. 258)................. Pb2Cu(AsO4 )(SO4 )(OH)

Sulfides, selenides, tellurides:

Altaite..... ........................................ PbTe

Betekhtinite.......... ........................... Cu10 (Fe,Pb)S8

Clausthalite..................................... PbSe

Galena ............................................ pbS

Formula

Minera la Continued

Sulfides, selenides, tellurides Continued

Parkerite......................................... Ni3 (Bi, Pb) 2S2

Shandite.......................................... NisPb^

Unnamed (v. 53, p. 1421)............... Pb-Bi-Te

Unnamed (v. 55, p. 1444)............... (Pb,Bi) 3Te4

Unnamed (v. 55, p. 1067) ............... (Pd.PbJgAs

Sulfosalts:

Aikinite........................................... PbCuBiS3

Andorite ......................................... PbAgSbgSe

Baumhauerite........... ....................... Pb^seSis

Benj'aminite.. .............. .................... Pb2 (Cu,Ag)2Bi4S9

Berryite............ ............................... Pb2 (Cu,Ag)3Bi5Su

Bonchevite ......................................

Boulangerite.... ..................... ...........

Bournonite...... ................................ PbCuSbS3

Bursaite....... .................................... PbsBUS

Cannizzarite..... ............................... Pb,Bi,S

Cosalite........ ...................................

Cylindrite..... ................................... PbsSn4Sb2Si4

Dadsonite .......................................

Diaphorite ......................................

Dufrenoysite ...................................

Fizelyite ..........................................

Franckeite........ ...............................

Freieslebenite.. ................................

Ftflbppite. ....... ................................

Galenobismutite. .............................

Geocronite ...................................... Pb5SbAsS8

Giessenitei........................................ Pb9CuBi6Sbi. 5S3o(?)

Gladite. ...........................................

Gratonite ........................................

Guettardite.... ............... ...................

Gustavite.. ....................................... Pb5Ag3BinS24

Hammarite...................................... Pb-Cu2Bi4S9

Hatchite.......................................... (Pb,Tl) 2AgAs2S5

Heteromorphite .............................. PbySbgSig

Hutchinsonite ................................. (Pb,Tl) 2 (Cu,Ag)As5S10

Jamesonite. ......... ................................ Pb4FeSbsSi 4

Jordanite...... ................................... (Pb,Tl) 13As7S23

Kobellite......................................... Pb2 (Bi,Sb)2S5

Launayite.... .................................... PbaoSb^Sei

Lengenbachite................................. Pb6 (Ag,Cu) 2As4Si3

Lillknite ......................................... Pb3Bi2S«

Lindstro'mite ................................... PbCuBi3S6 (?)

Liveingite........................................ Pb»Asi3S28

Madocite.. ....................................... Pb(Sb,As)ieS25

Marrite ........................................... PbAgAsSs

Meneghinite.... ................................ Pbi SCuSb7S24

Montesite. .......................................... PbSn4S5 (?)

Nagyagite........................................ Pb3Au(Te,Sb) 4S5-8

Neyite ............................................. Pb(Cu,Ag) 2Bi6Su

Nuffieldite.... ................................... Pb]0Cu4Bi10S27

Owyheeite....................................... Ag2Pb5Sb6Sj 5

Parajamesonite ....................._........ Pb4FeSbeSi 4

Pkgionite............. ........................... PbsSb8Si 7

Platynite ......................................... PbBi2 (Se,S) 3

Playfairite ....................................... Pb16Sb18S43

Ramdohrite..................................... Ag2PbsSbcSi3

Rathite............................................ (Pb,Tl)3As«Sio

Rezbanyite. ..................................... Pb3Cu2Bi10Si 9

Robinsonite .................................... Pb^bi^s

Sakharovaite....................... ............ (Pb,Fe)(Bi,Sb) 2S4

Sartorite.......................................... PbAs2S4

Schirmerite ..................................... PbAg4Bi4Su

Scligmannite ................................... PbCuAsSs

Semseyite..... ................................... Pb9Sb8S2i

Sorbyite....................... ................... Pbi 7(Sb,As) 22S50

Sterryite.......... ................. ............... Pb12 (Sb,As) 10S2T

Teallite.. ........... ............................... PbSnS2

Tintinaite ........................................ Pb-,(Sb,Bi) 8Si 7

Twinnite.......................................... Pb(Sb,As) 2S4

Ustarasite......... ............................... Pb(Bi,Sb) 8Sio

Veenite............................................ Pb2(Sb,As) 2S5

Wallisite............................................... PbTI(Cu,Ag)As2S5

Weibullite ....................................... Pb4Bi«SBSe4

Wittite.................... ......................... Pb5Bie(S,Se)i 4

Zinkenite......................................... Pb6Sbi 4S27

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed 

Unnamed

. 5, p. 136)................... Pb3As4S9

. 55, p. 1067)............... Pb,Ag,Sb,S

. 55, p. 1445)............... Pb,Ag,Cu,Bi,S

l & p- »») --- - (Pb,Ag,Bi)Cu4Bi5S11

. 38, p. 525)................. Pb,Ag,Cu,Fe,Sb,S

. 55, p. 533)................ Pb8BieS, 7

INDEX

A Page

Abundance.................................................................... /

Accumulator plants................................................. 61, 76

Agricultural waste......................................................... 13

Air pollution.................................!, 2, 3, 38, 54, 66, 67, 73

Alaska, air pollution..................................................... 74

Alkalinity, solubility..............................................9, 38, 44

Allanite.......................................................................... 27

Aluminum sesquioxide................................................. 44

Amphibole................................................................. 2, 29

Analytical methods.................................................... 3, 81

Andesite......................................................................... 25

Anemia.......................................................................... 77

Anglesite................................................................. 2, 21, 23

Anomalous concentrations..............................................59

Antarctica...................................................................... 74

surface water.......................................................... 36

Antimony...................................................................... 1

Arsenic........................................................................... I

Associations, ore deposits.......................................... 1, 17

Atlantic Coastal Plain, concentration.......................... 47

Atmosphere................................... 1, 2, 3, 38, 54, 66, 67, 73

Atomic absorption spectrometry........................... 3, 35, 82

Automobile exhaust........................................... 1, 3, 38, 67

B

Barley, toxicity sensitivity............................................. 58

Basalt.......................................................................... 1, 25

Bauxite.......................................................................... 31

Biogeochemistry............................................................ 53

Biotite......................................................................... 2, 25

Black Sea....................................................................... 40

Blood damage............................................................... 77

Bluegrass, toxicity sensitivity....................................... 58

Bone damage................................................................. 77

Brain damage............................................................. 77, 78

British Columbia, livestock poisoning........................ 76

Bulgaria, soil................................................................. 43

Calcite........................................................................... 2

Carbonate.....................................................!, 2, 5, 7, 8, 21

Catde, poisoning.......................................................... 76

Cerrusite................................................................. 2, 21, 23

Chelation.................................................................... 2, 14

Chemistry...............................................................5, 13, 43

Cigarette smoke............................................................. 75

Cincinnati, air pollution.............................................. 74

Clay............................................................................ 2, 21

Claystone....................................................................... 31

Coal............................................................................ 2,32

Coeur d'Alene district, Idaho...............................17, 57, 60

Colloidal particles.......................................... .......10, 35, 38

Colorado, concentration............................................... 47

livestock poisoning................................................ 76

smelter.................................................................... 66

soil.......................................................................... 2

vegetation............................................................... 56

Colorado mineral belt................................................... 17

Colorado River.............................................................. 36

Colorimetric analysis................................................. 3, 82

Columbia River............................................................ 36

Consumption, U.S........................................................ 1

Coordination compounds............................................. 14

Copper, association....................................................... 1

plant toxicity resistance......................................... 58

Corn, toxicity resistance............................................... 58

[Page numbers of major references are in italic]

D Page

Delusions....................................................................... 78

Deoxyribonucleic acid.................................................. 14

Deposits, distribution................................................... 17

mineral associations.............................................. 17

Detection....................................................................... 3

Diorite........................................................................... 25

Distribution, ore deposits.......................................... 17, 46

Dolomite.................................................................. 1, 2, 31

Dunite........................................................................... 1

Electron probe............................................................ 3, 82

Emotional instability.................................................... 78

Encephalopathy............................................................ 77

Evaporites................................................................... 1, 32

Feldspar.............................................................2, 25, 27, 32

Flavoproteins................................................................ 58

Florida, surface water................................................... 36

Food.............................................................................. 75

Fossil fuels................................................................. 2, 32

Galena................................................................ 2, 7, 21, 27

Garnet........................................................................... 29

Gasoline additive..............................................!, 38, 74, 77

Gastrointestinal system................................................. 77

Geochemical halos........................................................ 21

Gneiss............................................................................ 25

Gout.............................................................................. 77

Grain............................................................................. 75

toxicity sensitivity.................................................. 58

Granite....................................................................... 1, 25

Granodiorite............................................................... 25, 27

Grasses........................................................................... 3

Great Britain, health problems.................................... 63

soils........................................................................ 76

Great Lakes................................................................... 36

Greenland...................................................................... 3

Ground water............................................................. 6, 38

Gulf Plain, concentration............................................. 47

Gypsum......................................................................... 2

H

Halite.......................................................................... 2, 32

Hallucinations.............................................................. 78

Halos..........................................................................21, 60

Heal* hazards........................................................... 73, 77

High Plains, concentration.......................................... 47

Horses, poisoning......................................................... 76

Hot-springs water......................................................... 39

Hydrosolic suspension.................................................. 10

Hydroxides.................................................................5, 7, 8

Hypertension................................................................. 77

I

Idaho, surface water...................................................... 38

vegetation............................................................ 57, 60

Igneous rocks................................................................ 25

Indicator plants............................................................. 61

Industrial safety............................................................ 77

Industrial waste.................................................. 2, 3, 13, 38

Page

Inorganic chemistry, water........................................... 5

Insecticide...................................................................... 3

Insomnia....................................................................... 78

Ionic radii..................................................................... 25

Ionic strength, solubility.............................................. 8

Iowa, vegetation............................................................ 54

Iron sesquioxide............................................................ 44

J,K,L

Japan, health problems................................................ 63

thermal water......................................................... 39

Kidney damage.............................................................. 77

Lakes.......................................................................... 2, 36

Lane County, Oreg....................................................... 19

Leaching....................................................................... 1

Lichen........................................................................... 3

Limestone............................................................... 1, 21, 31

Limonite....................................................................... 23

Liver.............................................................................. 77

Livestock, poisoning..................................................... 76

Los Angeles, air pollution............................................ 74

M

Manganese..................................................................... 2

Maryland, surface water................................................ 36

vegetation.......................................................53, 54, 57

Mediterranean Sea......................................................... 40

Metabolic effects............................................................ 77

Metamorphic rocks....................................................... 25

Mica........................................................................ 2, 25, 27

Michigan, concentration............................................... 47

Migration..........................................................;, 21, 32, 53

Minerals..................................................................... 2, 25

Mining............................................................23, 39, 63, 76

Minnesota, concentration............................................. 47

vegetation............................................................... 54

Miscarriage.................................................................... 77

Mississippi River.......................................................... 36

Missouri, ground water................................................ 39

livestock poisoning................................................ 76

soil....................................................................... 50, 53

vegetation.......................................................53, 66, 68

Missouri district............................................................ 17

Missouri River.............................................................. 36

Molecular absorption.................................................... 82

Monazite........................................................................ 27

Montana, vegetation..................................................... 65

Mosses........................................................................... 3

Mudstone....................................................................... 31

Municipal waste............................................................ 13

Muscovite............................................................... 2, 25, 27

N

Nebraska, concentration............................................... 47

Neunxnuscular damage................................................ 77

New Lead Belt, Mo....................................................... 53

New Mexico, air pollution........................................... 75

vegetation............................................................ 53, 54

New York, vegetation................................................... 54

O

Oats............................................................................... 75

toxicity sensitivity.................................................. 58

89 .
90 INDEX

Page

Occupational hazards................................................... 77

Ocean water........................................................... 2, 32, 40

Ohio River.................................................................... 36

Oil-field brines.............................................................. 39

Oil shale....................................................................... 33

Oklahoma, smelter........................................................ 66

Olivine.......................................................................... 29

Optical emission spectrography............................ 3, 35, 81

Ore deposits............................................................... 1, 17

effect on soils......................................................... 21

Organic chemistry, water.............................................. 13

Organic compounds................................................ 1, 2, 14

Oxidation................................................................... 2, 21

Ozark Mountains, surface water................................... 38

Paint........................................................................... 1, 75

Perfluoroalkyl compounds........................................... 14

Pesticide........................................................................ 43

Petroleum................................................................... 2, 33

pH, solubility......................................................... 9, 38, 44

Philadelphia, air pollution.......................................... 74

Phonolite....................................................................... 25

Phosphate...................................................................... 7

Phosphoria Formation, Idaho...................................... 31

Phosphorus, plant toxicity resistance .......................... 58

Pica................................................................................ 75

Plagioclase.................................................................... 2

Plants..................................................................... 2, 23, 53

analysis................................................................... 82

Poisoning............................................................... 1, 73, 77

Polysaccharide complexes............................................. 15

Pollution, air........................................l, 38, 54, 66, 67, 73

soil.......................................................................... 66

water...............................................................13, 32, 35

Polynucleotides............................................................. 14

Poppy, toxicity resistance............................................. 58

Potash feldspar.............................................................. 2

Pottery glaze............................................................... 1, 75

Precipitation................................................................. 38

Production, U.S............................................................ 1

Prospecting...............................................21, 43, 56, 59, 61

plants..................................................................... 3

Pyromoiphite................................................................ 43

Pyroxene..................................................................... 2, 29

Q_R

Quartz......................................................................... 2, 29

Quartzite........................................................................ 1

Radioactive decay.......................................................... 73

Rainfall...................................................................... 2, 38

Red Sea....................................................................... 2, 32

Rhyolite...................................................................... 1, 25

Page

Ribonucleic acid........................................................... 14

Rivers............................................................................ 2

Runoff water................................................................. 38

Rural v. urban pollution.............................................. 3

San Diego, air pollution............................................... 74

San Juan Mountains..................................................... 17

Sandstone................................................................... 1, 31

Santa Catalina Island, Calif......................................... 19

Saturation, surface water.............................................. 8

Seasonal variation, concentration in plants.............. 3, 55

Seawater................................................................. 2, 32, 40

Sedimentary rocks......................... .... . . 31

Sediments............................................................... ....23, 31

Shale........................................................................... 1,31

Shasta copper district, Calif......................................... 19

Shrubs........................................................................... 3

Siltstone......................................................................... 31

Silver............................................................................. 1

Smelting................................................................. 3, 63, 75

Soil......................................................................... 2, 21, 43

Missouri................................................................. 53

Solubility.........................................!, 5, 7, 8, 23, 35, 38, 39

Spectrographic analysis................................................ 3

Springs.................................................................... 39

Stability fields, inorganic compounds......................... 5

Stillbirth........................................................................ 77

Stream sediments.......................................................... 23

Subsurface water........................................................ 6, 38

Sulfate .............................................................. 1, 2, 5, 8, 21

Sulfide ........................................................................2, 5, 8

Supergene processes.................................................. . 21

Supersaturation, surface water..................................... 8

Surface water.................................................2, 6,35, 36, 40

Surface water-sediment systems................................... 13

Suspended particles............ ...................................10, 35, 38

Sweetpeas, toxicity sensitivity....................................... 58

Thermal water.............................................................. 39

Thermodynamics, water............................................... 8

Thorite.......................................................................... 27

Titanite......................................................................... 27

Tomatoes, toxicity sensitivity....................................... 58

Tombstone, Ariz........................................................... 23

Toronto, air pollution.................................................. 75

Toxicity, animals.......................................................... 76

humans........................................................... 1, 73, 77

plants..................................................................... 57

Trachyte........................................................................ 25

Trees..................................................................3, 56, 57, 60

Troposphere.................................................................. 74

Page

U

Ultramafics.................................................................... 1

Union of South Africa, surface water.......................... 36

Uraninite ...... .. ....................................... ...... 27

Urban v. rural pollution.............................................. 3

U.S.S.R., ground water................................................. 39

surface water.......................................................... 36

thermal water......................................................... 40

Vegetation...................................................2, 23,53, 73, 75

analysis................................................................... 82

Viburnum Trend, Mo................................................... 53

Violets, toxicity sensitivity............................................ 58

Viruses................................................ .......................... 14

W

Wales, mining............................................................... 66

vegetation............................................................... 54

Wasatch Range............................................................. 17

Washington County, Md.............................................. 57

Waste............................................................................. 13

Water...................................................................... 2, 35, 76

analysis................................................................... 83

inorganic chemistry............................................... 5

ocean............................................................... 2, 32, 40

organic chemistry.................................................. 13

pollution................................................................ 23

solubility..................................!, 5, 7, 8, 23, 35, 38, 39

subsurface.............................................................. 6, 38

surface....................................................2, 6,35, 36, 40

thermodynamics..................................................... 8

Weathering................................................................. 21, 53

Wheat, toxicity sensitivity ............................................ 58

Wisconsin, concentration............................................. 47

ore deposits............................................................ 21

surface water.......................................................... 38

vegetation............................................................... 54

Wulfenite....................................................................... 23

X, Y, Z

X-ray spectrography................................................... 3, 82

Xenotime .. ... ..................... .............................. 27

Yugoslavia, air pollution............................................. 75

thermal water......................................................... 39

Zinc, migration............................................................. 22

ore deposits............................................................ 1

plant toxicity resistance......................................... 58

Zircon............................................................................ 27

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1974-777-034/ 18