Lead is included in the group of chemical elements which are toxic for the body and the environment. When taking up heavy metals from their environment, molluscs partially deposit them as detoxication products. Amoebocytes participate in this process. The majority of heavy metals undergo sorption on the shell surface, but this bond is of a labile nature. Some metals undergo uptake and can be integrated in soft tissues in a more permanent manner. This pool might constitute a potential source of contamination for consumers. All the more so that snails for consumption purposes are not obtained from artificial breeding but from the purchase of harvests from various areas which are not always ecologically pure.

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of accumulation of lead in tissues of the edible snail Helix aspersa maxima in strictly controlled conditions. The snails were bred for 130 days. In this time, the animals received the standard feed supplemented with Pb²⁺ (sprayed) with Pb(NO₃)₂ concentrations of 0.05 mg/L and 5 mg/L. The lower of the lead concentration administered was the maximum concentration permissible in the drinking water in Poland (Journal of Laws No. 35/1990). In the control culture, spraying of feed with tap water with a Pb²⁺ concentration of 0 mg/L was used. Before material sampling for tests, the snails were starved for two days. The materials for quantitative analysis were soft tissues of adult snails, i.e. the foot and hepatopancreas and the shells. Portions of 100 mg of the powdered dry tissue mass were weighed, immersed in concentrated HNO₃ and left standing at room temperature for 12h. Then they were digested at 100°C in a steam bath for one day. Then 0.5 mL of perhydrol was added to the samples and the samples were digested for subsequent 12 h at room temperature until clear solution was obtained. Lead was measured in the whole test material by atomic absorption spectrometry. Measurements were performed in the air-acetylene flame (at a wavelength of 217.0 nm). On the basis of the calibration curve, the concentration values were calculated and referred to the weight of the aliquot used for the analysis. Statistical processing of the results obtained was performed with the use of non-parametric tests.

The results obtained indicate that the organ which most intensively accumulated lead was hepatopancreas. Accumulation of lead in each of the test materials significantly increases along with its delivery. Although very high doses of lead were used – even one hundred times higher than those permissible in the drinking water – the level of lead accumulation in each of the test materials was below the FDA limit of 0.1 ppm. Lead concentration in the snail foot (edible material) was at a level almost ten times lower. Therefore, it seems that eating the Helix aspersa maxima snails, even those living in the lead-contaminated environment, does not create a risk of poisoning with this chemical element.

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