Joint study of lead contamination relative to horse deaths in southern Solano County

Book · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1972

OSTI ID:5090366

Maga, J A; Hodges, F B; Christenson, C B; Callaghan, D J

The Air Resources Board coordinated a joint study by several state agencies to determine the cause of death of a number of horses in the Benicia area from 1968 to 1970. The diagnosis in all cases was chronic lead poisoning, possibly aggravated by other factors. There was strong evidence that the horses died of lead poisoning, after ingesting pasture grass that was contaminated with lead. Pasture grass was the major source of nutrition of the affected animals. The major source of the lead in the area was the 600-foot stack at the lead smelter of the American Smelting and Refining Company at Selby, California, which stopped operating in March 1971. Other sources of lead in the area were included. The lead reached the pasture vegetation from the atmosphere. The 1970 ambient air concentrations of particulate lead were typical of those found in urban and suburban areas, and were not high enough to cause the horse deaths by inhalation. The high vegetation lead levels may have been due to the high wind velocities and the filtering action of the plants. When the smelter was operating in 1970, grass samples from the pastures where the horses died contained more than 800 ug lead/g and more than 10 ug cadmium/g. Samples collected at the same sites in 1971, after the smelter stopped operating, showed much lower lead and cadmium concentrations. Vegetables, milk and meat products raised in the area for human consumption, and local potable water were tested for lead and determined to be safe. Grazing horses are probably not in danger of overt lead poisoning, on a diet of pasture grass, at the present level of lead content in the study area. 9 references, 5 figures, 10 tables.

• OSTI ID: 5090366
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AIR POLLUTION
ANIMALS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CADMIUM
CALIFORNIA
CHALCOGENIDES
CHRONIC EXPOSURE
ELEMENTS
FEDERAL REGION IX
GRASS
HORSES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
INGESTION
INTAKE
LEAD
MAMMALS
METALS
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PASTURES
PLANTS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION SOURCES
SMELTERS
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
TOXICITY
USA
VELOCITY
VERTEBRATES
WASTES
WIND