Organoleads in the environment: a review

The automobile and its use have been proposed as major sources of environmental organolead compounds. However, confirmation of this proposition was not possible until analytical technology evolved to give sufficient sensitivity to detect small quantities of lead species in small samples of environmental materials. It was further hypothesized that various biochemical pathways could convert inorganic lead ion to organolead species, a proposal which has been examined by several groups over many years. Once it was unequivocally established that organolead species can occur in the environment as a result of anthropogenic activity or naturally occurring biotic or abiotic processes, our group and others have examined the possible and likely biochemical effects associated with the environmental processes of organolead species. Research in this area has focused on examining the interactions of certain algae with a variety of organolead species. This paper discusses the evolution of environmental organolead biogeochemical research over the past 15 years.