ABSTRACT

Although the story may no longer be familiar to most people, it occupied the attention of whole nations in the mid-to late 19th century (Beattie & Geiger, 1988). The story is that of Sir John Franklin, who in 1845 led an expedition to complete the Northwest Passage, the arctic water route connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. This adventure is well known to historians, and it has been succinctly described by Richard Bayliss (Bayliss, 2002). As presented by Dr. Bayliss, ‘‘Sir John’’ commanded the HMS Erebus and, along with Captain Crozier who commanded the HMS Terror and an expedition of 129 officers and sailors, set sail from London on May 19, 1845. Nothing further was heard directly from the Franklin expedition. In an approximate 30-year period (from about 1850 to 1880), some two dozen expeditions were sent to discover what happened to Franklin and his men. Through these, and later expeditions, some as late as the 1980s, bits and pieces of information slowly came to light (Amy, Bhatnagar, Damkjar, & Beattie, 1986; Bayliss, 2002; Beattie & Geiger, 1988; Savours, 1990). The story that emerged was one of mystery, desperation, and tragedy. It is believed that no one from the expedition survived, and eventually, the

aim of the searches shifted from rescue to solving the mystery of how the crew died. It is this part of the story that makes it relevant in the present context. As it came to light, the Franklin expedition experienced a prolonged period of unusual winters, with summers too brief to allow the Arctic pack ice to melt. Bayliss described some of the events as follows. The explorers became trapped in the ice in the winter of 1846-1847, somewhere west of Boothia Peninsula. Many members of the crew became ill and began to die, including Sir John Franklin. The pack ice and wind carried the two ships south until they came to rest around King William Island. Captain Crozier made the decision in 1848 to abandon the ships in hope of reaching help at the Hudson Bay Company outpost. Accounts are that the men who had survived to this point were very ill, with symptoms suggestive of scurvy, e.g., bleeding gums, loose teeth, weight loss, weakness, shortness of breath, ecchymoses, and subcutaneous hematomas. Although some members of the crew made it as far as the mainland, none is believed to have survived the journey. Aside from evidence of scurvy, tuberculosis, frostbite, and other problems

related to the cold, other explanations regarding what killed the men on this expedition remained a mystery for over a century. The expedition was noteworthy, among other things, for its technological sophistication at the time. The ships involved were hybrids, combining steam driven screws with traditional

sails and equipped especially for traversing frozen seas. Also, the engines allowed for central heating. Medical knowledge at the time progressed to allow recognition of how to prevent scurvy, and enough citrus fruit had been stocked to prevent the disease. However, it may be that the longerthan-anticipated trip led to a breakdown of the ascorbic acid in the fruit or some other event that interfered with the fruit’s effectiveness, as the men did come down with scurvy despite their adequate knowledge of prevention. Most importantly, and while it might not seem today to be ‘‘high-tech,’’ the expedition capitalized on the process of preserving food for long periods using the ‘‘tin can,’’ the can being invented earlier in the 19th century by Peter Durand (Can Manufacturers Institute, 2000). This packaging, as it appears to have happened, was both a boon and a liability. Bayliss (2002) looked at earlier work by Beattie and Geiger (1988) and

considered several diverging trends in research that included autopsy results on bodies found from the Franklin party. Bayliss observed that, especially in comparison to Eskimos in the area, the crew members showed evidence of scurvy but also very high bone lead content (229 ppm, about ten times the amount in Eskimo controls). On the basis of the entire record, Bayliss concluded that the Franklin party suffered the effects of several diseases, including tuberculosis, scurvy, exposure to cold, and most important here, lead poisoning. Bayliss postulated that the source of lead contamination was the soldering of the cans used to keep the preserved meats. It was not that the lead poisoning directly killed the explorers, but, rather that the metal led to weight loss, fatigue, weakness, gastrointestinal difficulties, and eventually to psychological abnormalities like anxiety and paranoia. The combination of these symptoms and signs served to enhance the already compromised health of the crew, leading ultimately to their demise. The Franklin story is interesting, but here it underscores issues associated

with postindustrialization and the modern society. Various substances, synthetic and naturally occurring, are used alone and in unique combinations in our modern society. As in the case of the Franklin expedition, our knowledge regarding how to employ some new technology can be advanced beyond our understanding of all of the liabilities associated with such use. While many of the substances discussed in this chapter do occur naturally in the environment, our use of these agents for various primary and secondary industrial purposes contributes ultimately to their presence in the environment. Because of the relatively closed aspect of the Franklin expedition environment, it is easy to see in retrospect the impact of contamination. In the larger general environment, such recognition may be long-coming, despite the fact that, ultimately, it is no less a closed environment, no less real, and no less a threat to our survival than it was to the Franklin party. Knowledge is a prerequisite for control. If the planners of the Franklin expedition had all of the knowledge (e.g., that the lead content of the solder could poison as well as help preserve the contents by preventing the escape of air from the container), they might have been able to make adjustments and avoid the ultimate lead poisoning that occurred. In the remainder of this chapter, we present a number of, what we

see as, important industrial and environmental agents. We have chosen the specific topics because of such factors as the frequency with which they are encountered, the seriousness of their risk, or because they serve as a model for understanding some aspect of neurobehavioral toxicology. We hope to increase the reader’s understanding of these substances and, in so doing, contribute to safe and productive use of our environment to better the quality of our lives.