Research

Christmas 2009: Diagnosis

Lead poisoning as possible cause of deaths at the Swedish House at Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, winter 1872-3

BMJ 2009; 339 doi: 10.1136/bmj.b5038 (Published 4 December 2009)
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b5038
  1. Ulf Aasebø, professor of lung medicine12,
  2. Kjell G Kjær, retired historian3
  1. 1Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway
  2. 2Department of Lung Medicine, University Hospital of North Norway
  3. 39136 Vannareid, Norway
  1. Correspondence to: U Aasebø ulf.aasebo{at}unn.no

    Abstract

    Objective To investigate cause of death in 17 sealers who died in the Swedish house in Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, during the winter of 1872-3.

    Design Analysis of skeletal samples from one sealer’s grave.

    Setting Field trip to Spitsbergen to exhume skeletal remains.

    Subjects One of 17 sailors who died in 1872-3.

    Results No objective signs of scurvy were found. The concentration of lead in the bone samples was 102.05 µg/g.

    Conclusions The high concentrations of lead indicate that this man died from lead poisoning, probably from food tins. The absence of macroscopic signs of scurvy supports this theory.

    Footnotes

    • We thank Tora Hultgreen of Svalbard Museum, Einar Johansen of the Polar Institute, Yngvar Thomassen of the National Institute of Environmental Health, and the National Veterinary Institute for their contributions towards this expedition. A more extensive version of this paper is in press with Polar Record.

    • Contributors: Both authors took part in the planning, excavation, and preparing the manuscript. UA is guarantor.

    • Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests: None declared.

    • Ethical approval: The study was approved by the National Ethics Committee for Medical Research and the Governor of Cultural Heritage.

    • Data sharing: No additional data available.

      This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

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