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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1998;152:1247.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In the article titled "Management of Lead Poisoning From Ingested Fishing Sinkers," in the May 1998 issue of the ARCHIVES, Mowad et al strive to "describe what is, to our knowledge, the first reported case of lead poisoning from ingested fishing sinkers in an 8-year-old boy for whom whole bowel irrigation and colonoscopy were required."¹(p485) While the report makes several interesting and important points, I take issue with the requirement, or even the advisability, of colonoscopy for this indication.

The few direct measurements of lead uptake from various regions of the intestine in mammals indicate that it is prominent in the proximal small bowel and decreases in the distal intestinal segments.^2-3 The risk of continuing lead absorption in the colon seems minimal. While the risks of colonoscopy are small, and the risks of flexible sigmoidoscopy are even smaller, the benefits derived from the removal of lead foreign bodies from . . . [Full Text of this Article]