Do high blood lead levels cause a rise in body temperature?
It appears that high blood lead levels do in fact cause a rise in body temperature. Hunter (1975) cites the following examples in The Diseases of Occupations section on Lead Poisoning: In 1947 Bini and Bollea described two fatal cases of poisoning, where ethyl-petrol intended for use as aviation fuel was used for the dry cleaning for clothes. The patients were Italians, a man of American airmen stationed in Italy. They worked in a room which was small, closed and poorly ventilated, and they ironed the clothes while they were still wet with the leaded petrol. After a few days exposure they suffered from anorexia, vertigo, general weakness and insomnia. About a week later there was psychomotor agitation, with a rapid stream of disconnected talking and mental confusion in the nature of a toxic confusional delirium with visual and auditory hallucinations occurring together, tremors affecting all muscles, myoclonus and choreiform movements. Two days later they became comatose and died with
