The Effect of Lead Exposure on Skin
Tissue Elasticity
Name: Amar Bains
Class: BE 210
The goal of this experiment is to determine whether exposing chicken skin to lead metal for an extended period of time (1 week) in tap water will change the Young’s modulus of the skin. The aim of using lead in this experiment is to be able to apply any findings to real-world situations in which people become exposed to lead through their water pipes. If it is found that lead does have adverse effects on chicken skin, the findings can be used as a basis for further testing with human skin so that the negative health effects of lead can be further understood. This greater understanding could be used to generate more awareness of the possible harms of lead exposure and to develop treatments against lead poisoning. Based on literature findings on the composition of collagen and elastin fibers in the skin (Alberts, 1099), it is hypothesized that lead exposure will make the skin more fragile and prone to breakage than normal, resulting in a lower Young’s modulus than unexposed skin.