ABSTRACT
The problems caused by contamination when measuring trace metals were first brought to the attention of the scientific community by Patterson in his investigations of stable lead isotopes in the 1960s and 1970s [4-6]. Largely through his influence clean methods became part of the standard operating procedures used by chemical oceanographers starting in the mid-1970s [5,6]. Freshwater chemists were slow to adopt these same techniques with the notable exception of the long series of investigations on lead cycling by Patterson and co-workers [7-11].
