Preface

Despite the fact that some readers might think that the title of this book is too broad, this book should attract all of those interested in learning more about lead, especially in terms of recent interests and facts.

The most important thing is that the health concern for lead needs to be emphasized in addition to the fact that lead is still continuously in use all over the world and environmental aspects have not been well recognized. It might be hard to believe that the effects of lead penetrate deep down into the details of the human metabolic system and the shocking thing is that more research is needed because some of the aspects have no scientific data to support.

To describe the behavior of lead in its compounds and apply them in various areas, understanding the properties of lead in details is required. This would allow the readers to recognize that understanding this specific topic requires a combination of various disciplines, especially physics and spectroscopy.

Another fascinating aspect is the way that lead can form a variety of nanoparticles that can be very useful in a wide range of applications, especially engineering and analysis.

To make the book much more complete, one chapter has been dedicated to general concepts to inform newcomers as well as remind researchers who are familiar with lead as a general review on the role of lead in a large number of applications and disciplines.

In brief, it is hoped that our long sacrifice and contribution in the form of "Lead Chemistry" will reward the readers with knowledge as inspirations to further provide the world with fruitful, meaningful, interesting and creative concepts about lead, which should lead to greater and greater discoveries in the future.

Thanks to all the authors who worked patiently with us to the point of completeness. Our appreciation is extended further to all personnel involved in the process of publishing the book despite the fact that there were unexpected situations which have turned out to be a wonderful opportunity for success in publishing this book and, of course, laying a wonderful foundation for a lot more creative books in a few years to come.

> **Pipat Chooto** Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

**1**

Section 1

Health Issues of Lead

Section 1
