Artist: Grandma Lead aka Elizabeth O’Brien

Lead-safety Message: “Passing by butterflies, fluttering for a day” – a line from An ocean of strange islands, reminds me of 1920s US tetra ethyl lead (TEL) factory workers who were so lead poisoned they hallucinated butterflies and soon after, died. I pray that the New Zealand Prime Minister will finally acknowledge and compensate the last one alive of the manual TEL plant workers, Brian Arndt (who turned 85 in 2025), for his exposure to TEL at New Zealand Petroleum Refinery 1965-1975.

Description of Work: Screenshot from Nightwish – An ocean of strange islands (official lyric video) & lyric by Songwriter: Tuomas Holopainen. An Ocean of Strange Islands lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Message from Rebecca Skloot’s Houses of Butterflies, Jan 2001, and Dr Ulrich Mack’s LeadTox Blog Institutional Manslaughter Part 1, 25 Jul 2025.