384 APPLIED SCIENCE 



mixing, or chipping off old paint, the red lead is the most 

 dangerous because it is lighter and floats in the air more 

 easily. Chrome yellow is considered to be almost as harmful 

 as the red lead. Lead sulphate is not so dangerous as the 

 lead carbonate, red lead, or the chrome yellow. Both lead 

 carbonate and lead sulphate, however, produce acute lead 

 poisoning. 



432. Safeguards Against Poisoning. Experiments con- 

 ducted to determine the effect which milk, when combined 

 with the gastric juice (a fluid secreted in the stomach), has 

 upon the amount of lead dissolved, brought the conclusion 

 that when the milk and gastric juice are in equal proportion 

 the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice is so completely 

 fixed by the milk proteins, or neutralized by the carbonates 

 in the milk, that the mixture has virtually no solvent action 

 on the lead salts; that is, it will not dissolve the lead. Con- 

 sequently, milk drinking will have a beneficial effect on the 

 worker exposed to lead poisons. 



Three practical suggestions have been made for safe- 

 guarding painters against poisoning: 



(a) Since lead carbonate is so much more toxic than the 

 lead sulphate, individual lead-workers, as well as industry 

 in general, should aim at the elimination of the use of the 

 carbonate wherever possible. 



(6) Since basic lead sulphate, or sublimed lead, is poison- 

 ous, none of the precautions usually advocated for the pro- 

 tection of workers in lead should be neglected by those 

 handling lead sulphate. 



(c) In addition to taking other important prophylactic 

 (preventive) measures, workers in lead salts should drink 

 a glass of milk between rmals say at 10 A.M. and 4 P.M. 



