Lead caused the fall of the Roman Empire!

[Imperial Dave]

back in the day I would rather think that steel poisoning was much more of a killer than lead poisoning was 

[Swampster]

Absurd.

In a world where life expectancy was 25 and infant mortality was about 50% lead poisoning wouldn't have figured in the top 20 health problems you were facing. In fact, lead piping was probably a hugely positive because it was correlated with reliable water supply, technology, investment etc. etc.

Alternatively...
Yeah, those lead pipes, common up until the 1950s, but the one empire it really nailed was the Romans??

One of the reasons average life expectancy was because infant mortality was so high. Get past about 10 and your average life expectancy was much higher - certainly long enough that lead poisoning could be an issue.

See here for instance https://www.brlsi.org/events-proceedings/proceedings/25020
 

[Imperial Dave]

Absurd.

In a world where life expectancy was 25 and infant mortality was about 50% lead poisoning wouldn't have figured in the top 20 health problems you were facing. In fact, lead piping was probably a hugely positive because it was correlated with reliable water supply, technology, investment etc. etc.

Alternatively...
Yeah, those lead pipes, common up until the 1950s, but the one empire it really nailed was the Romans??

One of the reasons average life expectancy was because infant mortality was so high. Get past about 10 and your average life expectancy was much higher - certainly long enough that lead poisoning could be an issue.

See here for instance https://www.brlsi.org/events-proceedings/proceedings/25020

yes, the old stats issue. Thanks for the link Peter, very interesting indeed

[Nick Harbud]

There was a piece on the radio I heard as I was driving somewhere recently which commented that up until comparatively recently Lead Acetate was used to sweeten wine

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/sugar-of-lead-a-deadly-sweetener-89984487/

In the UK it was cider manufacture that tended to be the worst for lead contamination.  Not only was lead acetate used as a sweetener, but the vats in which it was brewed were all lead.

WRT lead poisoning from old pipework, my father tells me that it was common practice to run the tap for several minutes before drawing water to avoid the high concentration of lead that would build up in the stagnant length of pipework.  In London the water has a relatively high pH due to largely coming from abstraction through limestone.  Therefore, it does not dissolve the lead pipework too much.  However, if one's water supply is somewhat more acidic, it can have catastrophic effects, such as those noted here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

This is important with respect to Roman water supply.  If it was received from rainwater, it would be much more acidic than spring water that had been filtered through various neutralizing geology.

[Patrick Waterson]

This is important with respect to Roman water supply.  If it was received from rainwater, it would be much more acidic than spring water that had been filtered through various neutralizing geology.

Good point.  Practically* the whole of Rome's water supply came from springs (via the aqueduct route) and this approach seems to have spread across the Empire.  Vitruvius is particularly keen on sourcing the right kind of spring.

*OK, there was a bit of rainwater dropping into pools and containers, and there were sometimes people sufficiently silly or desperate to drink from the Tiber.