“…Tetraalkylleads, which may form a small portion of the total lead emitted from automobiles and from related industries (1-3), are volatile but environmentally labile. They are degraded abiotically (4)(5)(6) and via metabolic processes (7,8) to result, sequentially, in trialkyllead (R3Pb+), dialkyllead (R2Pb2+), and inorganic lead (Pb2+) salts. Ionic alkyllead salts are considered to be more persistent in the environment, and they retain much of the acute toxicity of their tetraalkyl progenitors.…”