While it is known to us that learning chemistry is both interesting and beneficial, in order to illustrate the importance of progression of chemical knowledge an interesting case history may be cited. David and Susan, a young and healthy couple of California, returned from a trip to Italy. Soon after, Susan became gradually ill, showing flu-like symptoms including nausea and severe muscle pains. Even her personality changed. She became uncharacteristically grumpy. She seemed like a totally different person from the healthy, happy woman. Doctors advised her to rest and drink a lot of fluids especially large quantities of coffee and orange juice, which she preferred to take in a clay mug, purchased from Italy during their recent trip. However, she got sicker, developing extreme abdominal cramps and severe anemia.

 In the meantime, David also became ill and started showing symptoms much like Susan's. In fact, the disease became so debilitating that he had to go for voluntary retirement from the air force and Susan's condition became so miserable that she could not tolerate even the weight of a blanket. Amazingly, the doctors attending on them could not find the cause of their illness and fast deteriorating health. They were surprised to note that no medicine ever responded. Lastly, a board of eight doctors started deliberating on the entire case history, but no one could reveal any plausible explanation to the fatal disease. However, one of the doctors stated having read identical symptoms in ‘Porphypra', a rare blood disease.

Desperate and helpless David started searching details of the said disease in the medical literature. One day while he was reading about Porphypra, a phrase jumped of one of the pages "Lead poisoning can sometimes be confused with Porphypra". Overlooking for a moment, his obvious response was to consult his doctor who advised them to get a blood analysis for lead level. They went for such an analysis and the results showed high lead level in blood of both of them.

This confirmed that lead poisoning was the root cause of their trouble and agony but the main problem was still not solved as the source of the ingested lead was not identified. They thought that the probable source was either the fast food that they used to consume routinely or the dishes they used to prepare. Incidentally, they came to learn that lead compounds are often used to give a shiny finish on pottery articles. When they got their favorite Italian pottery mugs that they preferred to use for drinking juice and fluids analyzed, they were shocked to know that lead was present in the glaze of mugs. When they discontinued the use of those mugs and took the prescribed medication, they recovered fully. Thanks to the episode and its consequences, that they started publicizing about the dangers of using lead-glazed pottery.

About the Author:
Dr. Badruddin Khan teaches Chemistry in the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India. His contact details are: E-mail buk1@rediffmail.com and Phone:+919596220341