Chemical and statistical studies of contaminants in urban lungs.

Lungs taken at autopsy from 100 urban residents were studied to determine concentrations of 21 trace metals, dust, free silica and hydroxyproline. Medical, occupational and environmental histories were collected so that correlation studies might be done. The potential value of this data as a baseline for further studies of occupationally diseased lung tissue was assessed by evaluating the results of an analysis of variance. The personal histories were used as the criteria for classifying the observations (lung concentrations) into groups for the statistical analysis.