[Lead in the environment of Poland]

Lead belongs to those elements which have a great variety of applications in the up-to-date technology. In the form of waste products or automotive wastes it has been brought into a global circulation. The authors attempt to present harmful effects of this "environmental poison" on individual media and human population in Poland. Following published and non-published data, an outline of lead geochemistry, anthropo-genetic sources of lead emission into the environment, concentration of lead in the ambient air, surface water, soil, plants and food, is presented. The data are interpreted on the basis of home maximum allowable concentrations and on the health criteria recommended by international organizations. It was found that the knowledge on the level of pollution of individual environmental media with lead is diversified and incomplete. This hinders a comparable and comprehensive evaluation of lead migration in the natural environment and thus the assessment of exposure magnitude among inhabitants of all regions (voivoships) of the country. Emissions from plants producing and processing non-ferrous metals, industrial waste sites, motor transport especially in central parts of urban and industrial agglomerations, and use of certain mineral fertilizers are recognized as the greatest hazards to the biosphere and human health among all sources of environmental pollution with lead. As appears from the data, the highest level of lead contamination of air, water and soil occurs in the central part of the Upper Silesian Industrial District as well as in the direct vicinity of other plants of non-ferrous metals in Katowice and Legnica voivodships. It was also noted that crops from those agglomerations and from family gardens located near active industrial waste sites or exploited yards may contain amounts of lead exceeding considerably allowable concentrations. It was revealed that in Polish conditions the largest amounts of lead enter children's organism with dirt, dust and food and the smallest with water. Vegetables and potatoes, and in the case of children, milk as well are the main carriers of lead in Polish food, therefore, these products should remain under particular laboratory control. It is acknowledged that preventive measures in areas where the level of environmental pollution with lead is not fully recognized, biological monitoring of lead concentrations in the blood of children, the most sensitive group of population, should be initiated.