High levels of lead in lost Franklin crew
McMaster study examines hair sample from 1845 expedition
McMaster University researchers have shed new light on the demise of the crew of Franklin’s lost expedition by analyzing hair samples to find levels of lead were not sufficient to cause death.
The analysis of hair from a crew member concluded that lead poisoning was only one of numerous factors contributing to his death, and not the main cause.
“Lead definitely played a part, but it would not have been the thing that actually killed him,” says Lori D’Ortenzio, lead author of the paper and a researcher in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University.
“Lead exposure was something added to the mix. They were also starving, probably fighting and had severe hypothermia,” she said.
In the 1980s, Canadian researchers suggested that cans used to hold food caused widespread lead poisoning, causing severe mental impairment and death.
But in recent years, other studies have emerged to downplay the role of lead, with the McMaster study — published in the The Journal for Archaeological Science: Reports — being the latest.
D’Ortenzio says, “Looking at the hair, it tends to agree with the new hypothesis that it just wasn’t severe lead toxicity, although it certainly did not help their immune systems and it probably caused them to not make very good decisions because of lead toxicity. I think using the hair we’ve reached kind of tipping point in the lead story.”
All 129 crew men and officers died on the 1845 British expedition to chart the Northwest Passage after their two ships — the Erebus and Terror — became stuck in thick ice. After numerous searches over the years, the ships were eventually discovered less than 100 kilometres apart.
The Terror was found in 24 metres of water in September 2016 in Terror Bay, on the coast of King William Island, west of the community of Gjoa Haven. The Erebus was found in 2014, about
11 metres below the surface in the Queen Maud Gulf, along the central Arctic coastline.
The McMaster researchers acquired hair samples from the skeletal remains believed to belong to Henry Goodsir, a Scottish physician and scientist on the expedition.
Hair was chosen for analysis because — unlike bones or teeth — it grows incrementally, approximately one centimetre per month. That means researchers could focus attention on Goodsir’s exposure to lead during the last weeks of his life, rather than the accumulation of lead over the course of his lifetime.
“Our analysis also points to just how high lead exposure was in industrial Britain at the time,” says Michael Inskip, a visiting expert on lead isotope analysis in the Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences program. “People would have ingested lead everywhere: in food, wine and medicines, for example.”