Lead is hazardous to humans causing nerve damage, and in high concentrations death. Lead used to be widely and sometimes carelessly used in paint, gasoline, mining, etc. From these it gets into plants, fish and eventually us.  The use and handling of lead are currently more carefully restricted and regulated. Therefore lead levels in water have dropped but still need to be monitored. This research determined the concentrations of lead using Atomic Absorption at 5 sites in the Mississippi river and tributaries over a three month period. Several standards were run to establish a calibration curve from which the concentrations of the water samples were determined. The results were compared with earlier lead determinations to see if there was a trend.

Concentrations of lead in river and creek water

245th National Meeting (2013)

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