ART

Toxic heavy metals in the paints used by artists Peter Paul Rubens, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Klee and Raul Dufy may have been the cause of their health problems, according to Danish scientists Lisbet Pedersen and Henrik Permin. The pair, writing in a British medical journal, said that when the artists used yellow, red, white, green, blue and violet paints, they were exposed to such poisonous metals as lead and mercury. Rubens, Renior and Dufy all suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and Klee had sclerosis. The researchers said present-day artists use fewer toxic pigments.