Lead

Running head : LEAD

Lead

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Lead

Lead , a heavy , bluish - gray element , is one of the world 's oldest known metals . People have used lead for thousands of years as a building material and to make pottery and other objects . Today , lead is important to many industries , especially to those that produce chemicals , nuclear energy and petroleum (Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008

In spite of its usefulness , lead can

be harmful . If too much lead builds up in the body , a condition called lead poisoning can result This condition occurs chiefly among people who work in certain chemical plants or other factories or refineries where there are large quantities of lead fumes or dust in the air (American Academy of Pediatrics , 1999 Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008 NSC .org , 2004 Syracuse , 2005

The amount of lead used is significantly greater than the quantity of lead mined . Annual lead use worldwide is about 6 million short tons (5 .4 million metric tons , but yearly lead production from mines is only about 3 ? million short tons (3 million metric tons . The rest is obtained by recycling lead from scrap products . Australia and the Soviet Union are the leading lead - mining countries . The United States ranks third and Canada , fourth (Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008

Pure lead is soft and has little strength . As a result , lead producers often alloy (mix ) it with small amounts of other metals to form lead alloys . The added metals , such as antimony and tin , increase the strength of lead and give it other properties . Lead also combines chemically with chlorine , oxygen and other elements to form various compounds . For example , it combines with sulfur to produce lead sulfide , also called galena (Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008

Lead is highly malleable- that is , it can be hammered or pressed into thin sheets . Lead also possesses great ductility , the ability to be permanently stretched without breaking . It resists corrosion by water and by sulfuric acid and other powerful chemicals . Lead is a poor conductor of electricity . Lead has an atomic weight 201 .19 , and its atomic number is 82 . Its chemical symbol , Pb , comes from the Latin word for lead , plumbum . Lead melts at 327 .5 C and boils at 1740 C . At 20 C its density is 11 .35 grams per cubic centimeter (Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008

The largest single use of lead is in the manufacture of lead - acid storage batteries . These batteries contain pure lead and lead compounds , and certain parts of them are made of a lead - antimony alloy . Storage batteries provide power for the electrical systems of airplanes , automobiles and many other vehicles (Jefferson Lab , 2008 National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences , 2008

Lead is also used in the production of tetraethyl lead , an ingredient...