A commentary on in vivo lead X-ray fluorescence with reference to the 1992 workshop

One of the main purposes of this Commentary is to respond to some of the issues raised in a Summary by Todd et al. (1993) of the 1992 Workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), as it contains apparently undocumented claims for K-Line XRF (KXRF) techniques and understates the efficacy and clinical research results of the L-Line XRF (LXRF) technique (Rosen et al., 1989; Rosen et al., 1991). This Commentary presents a point of view concerning the Workshop that is different in several respects from that published by Todd, Landrigan and Bloch (Todd et al., 1993). As two of the three co-developers of the L-Line XRF (LXRF) technique, we wish to draw the following information to the attention of readers of Neurotoxicology, some of which was published before the Workshop took place and some of which has been published subsequently (Rosen et al., 1993; Rosen and Markowitz, 1993; Markowitz et al., 1993).