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As lead is phased out of gasoline, other additives with anti-knock properties, particularly organic manganese compounds, are being substituted. Unavoidably, such compounds go through the combustion process, are eliminated in exhaust gases, and become part of the city environment. To obtain some indication of the extent of this new pollution, street soils from various locations in a heavily trafficked city (Newark, NJ) were analyzed for manganese and lead by atomic absorption. Highly significant inverse relationships were found between the concentrations of both contaminants and distances from major traffic ar-

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We investigated whether information on concentrations of some trace-mental concentrations in blood plasma or cerebrospinal fluid, or both, could be of value in diagnosis or management of various neurological diseases, and whether concentrations in plasma could serve as a means of estimating the protein or metal concentrations in cerebropsinal fluid. Samples of both from 82 patients were analyzed for copper, zinc, magnesium, and calcium by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Protein concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid were also determined. Metal and protein concentrations in plasma and in cerebrospinal fluid were not strongly enough correlated to permit the estimation of one from the other. However, the correlation coefficients between calcium in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (r = 0.41), magnesium and protein in cerebrospinal fluid (r = 0.40), magnesium in plasma and calcium in cerebrospinal fluid (r = 0.36), and magnesium and calcium in cerebrospinal fluid (r = 0.66) were statistically significant (P less than .01). Patients with cerebral infarctions had abnormally high copper concentrations in their plasma and cerebrospinal fluid. The ratio of plasma copper to plasma zinc was also significantly higher in cases of cerebral infarction.