The earliest lead ore processing in Europe. 5th millennium BC finds from Pietrele on the Lower Danube.

Eleven biconical vessels from the Copper Age sites Pietrele and Blejesti (Romania) have been investigated using p-XRF. In most cases, traces of lead could be measured on their surfaces. Samples of slag-like material from two vessels and the clay of one vessel were investigated using laboratory methods, namely SEM, XRD, LIA and optical microscopy. The vessels were obviously used as a kind of crucible in which slag-like remains and galena ore were detected. It still remains unclear as to what final product was gained by smelting galena in this way. The amount of these such vessels in the Pietrele settlement, their appearance as grave goods in Pietrele and Varaști (Romania), and their supposed occurrence in a number of other Copper Age settlements in Romania and Bulgaria show the significance of this phenomenon. It must have been a widespread and more or less well known practice, an important part of cultural habit during a particular period in the Lower Danube region and likely even farther afield. For the first time, extensive experimentation with lead ore can be shown in a clear chronological horizon, ca. 4400-4300 BCE in southeastern Europe.

Lead pollution recorded in Greenland ice indicates European emissions tracked plagues, wars, and imperial expansion during antiquity.

Lead pollution in Arctic ice reflects midlatitude emissions from ancient lead-silver mining and smelting. The few reported measurements have been extrapolated to infer the performance of ancient economies, including comparisons of economic productivity and growth during the Roman Republican and Imperial periods. These studies were based on sparse sampling and inaccurate dating, limiting understanding of trends and specific linkages. Here we show, using a precisely dated record of estimated lead emissions between 1100 BCE and 800 CE derived from subannually resolved measurements in Greenland ice and detailed atmospheric transport modeling, that annual European lead emissions closely varied with historical events, including imperial expansion, wars, and major plagues. Emissions rose coeval with Phoenician expansion, accelerated during expanded Carthaginian and Roman mining primarily in the Iberian Peninsula, and reached a maximum under the Roman Empire. Emissions fluctuated synchronously with wars and political instability particularly during the Roman Republic, and plunged coincident with two major plagues in the second and third centuries, remaining low for >500 years. Bullion in silver coinage declined in parallel, reflecting the importance of lead-silver mining in ancient economies. Our results indicate sustained economic growth during the first two centuries of the Roman Empire, terminated by the second-century Antonine plague.

Environmental Impact of Alkyl Lead(IV) Derivatives: Perspective after Their Phase-out.

The use of alkyl lead derivatives as antiknock agents in gasoline can be considered as one of the main pollution disasters of the 20th century because of both the global character of the pollution emitted and the seriousness of the impact on human health. Alkyl lead derivatives in themselves cannot be considered to be persistent pollutants because they readily degrade either before being released from the tailpipes or soon afterwards in the atmosphere. However, the inorganic lead they produced has been deposited in soils all over the planet, largely, but not exclusively in urban areas and along motorways, since the direct emission of lead into the atmosphere favored its dispersal over great distances: The signal of the massive use of alkyl lead derivatives has been found all over the world, including in remote sites such as polar areas. The short residence time of lead in the atmosphere implies that this compartment is highly responsive to changes in emissions. This was demonstrated when leaded gasoline was phased-out and is in striking contrast to the very long permanence of inorganic lead in soils, where resuspension is a permanent source of toxic lead.

Lead in ancient Rome's city waters.

It is now universally accepted that utilization of lead for domestic purposes and water distribution presents a major health hazard. The ancient Roman world was unaware of these risks. How far the gigantic network of lead pipes used in ancient Rome compromised public health in the city is unknown. Lead isotopes in sediments from the harbor of Imperial Rome register the presence of a strong anthropogenic component during the beginning of the Common Era and the Early Middle Ages. They demonstrate that the lead pipes of the water distribution system increased Pb contents in drinking water of the capital city by up to two orders of magnitude over the natural background. The Pb isotope record shows that the discontinuities in the pollution of the Tiber by lead are intimately entwined with the major issues affecting Late Antique Rome and its water distribution system.

Kohl (surma): retrospect and prospect.

Kohl, since antiquity has always been given a prime importance in ophthalmology for the protection and treatment of various eye ailments. However, for decades various conflicting reports in the literature have been published relating to Kohl application to eyes being responsible for causing higher blood lead concentration, which may cause lead poisoning. While at the same time, a number of research studies and reports have also been published negating any such links with increased blood lead level upon Kohl (surma) application. In view of the above mentioned facts, this review article is written with the objective to highlight various data from past and present research studies and reports about Kohl, so as to provide valuable information to both the users and the research workers about it's scientific background and effects when applied into eyes. A large number of items and topics (such as Kohl, surma, eye cosmetic, traditional eye preparations, environmental lead pollution, galena, lead sulphide etc.) have been taken into consideration while compiling this review article. In conclusion, the authors of this review article feel that the relation between Kohl and toxicity or increased blood lead concentration upon it's application to eyes as reported elsewhere is likely to be more of theoretical nature rather than a practical health hazard.

A comparison of antimony and lead profiles over the past 2500 years in Flanders Moss ombrotrophic peat bog, Scotland.

Two cores collected in 2001 and 2004 from Flanders Moss ombrotrophic peat bog in central Scotland were dated (14C, 210Pb) and analysed (ICP-OES, ICP-MS) to derive and compare the historical atmospheric deposition records of Sb and Pb over the past 2500 years. After correction, via Sc, for contributions from soil dust, depositional fluxes of Sb and Pb peaked from ca. 1920-1960 A.D., with >95% of the anthropogenic inventories deposited post-1800 A.D. Over the past two centuries, trends in Sb and Pb deposition have been broadly similar, with fluctuations in the anthropogenic Sb/Pb ratio reflecting temporal variations in the relative input from emission sources such as the mining and smelting of Pb ores (in which Sb is commonly present, as at Leadhills/Wanlockhead in southern Scotland), combustion of coal (for which the Sb/Pb ratio is approximately an order of magnitude greater than in Pb ores) and exhaust emissions (Pb from leaded petrol) and abrasion products from the brake linings (Sb from heat-resistant Sb compounds) of automobiles. The influence of leaded petrol has been most noticeable in recent decades, firstly through the resultant minima in Sb/Pb and 206Pb/207Pb ratios (the latter arising from the use of less radiogenic Australian Pb in alkylPb additives) and then, during its phasing out and the adoption of unleaded petrol, complete by 2000 A.D., the subsequent increase in both Sb/Pb and 206Pb/207Pb ratios. The extent of the 20th century maximum anthropogenic enrichment of Sb and Pb, relative to the natural Sc-normalised levels of the Upper Continental Crust, was similar at approximately 50- to 100-fold. Prior to 1800 A.D., the influence of metallurgical activities on Sb and Pb concentrations in the peat cores during both the Mediaeval and Roman/pre-Roman periods was discernible, small Sb and Pb peaks during the latter appearing attributable, on the basis of Pb isotopic composition, to the mining/smelting of Pb ores indigenous to Britain.

The dearth of the clinic: lead, air, and agency in twentieth-century America.

By surveying myriad ways that twentieth-century American experts and nonexperts grappled with the health implications of aerial exposures to lead or substances that may have contained lead, this paper urges medical historians' attention toward environments-workplaces, homes and the outdoors-and their extrabodily ontology. Health histories framed around dust, toxins, fumes, and pollution rather than around particular diseases challenge long-accepted narratives, such as Hibbert Hill's old generalization about a "New Public Health" shift from "the environment to the individual." Greater environmental focus can also advance "bottom-up" health history. Pushing the gaze of twentieth-century medical and public health historians beyond hospitals, "public health" departments, clinically confirmable disease, and "patient" roles, it draws historians' attention to health-related realms in which laypeople often claimed greater knowledge and competence.

Bone cadmium and lead in prehistoric inhabitants and domestic animals from Gran Canaria.

Both lead and cadmium exposures derive from natural sources and also from industrialisation and certain habits, such as cigarette smoking in the case of cadmium. Some of these sources only affect human beings. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of lead and cadmium in bone samples of 16 prehispanic inhabitants of Gran Canaria, 24 prehispanic domestic animals (sheep, goat and pigs) from this island, 8 modern individuals, and 13 modern domestic animals. We found that modern individuals showed higher bone Cd values (mean=516.7+/-352.49 microg/kg, range=167.20-1125 microg/kg) than prehistoric ones (mean=85.13+/-128.96 microcg/kg, range=2.97-433 microg/kg). Values of prehistoric individuals did not differ from those of the prehistoric animals (mean=70.54+/-46.86 microg/kg, range=11.06-216.50 microg/kg), but were higher than those of the modern animals (mean=7.31+/-10.35 microg/kg, range=0-35.62 microg/kg). In the same way, modern individuals and modern animals showed approximately 7-fold higher bone Pb than ancient individuals and ancient animals, respectively. Ancient animals showed significantly lower Pb values than all the other groups, whereas modern animals showed Pb values comparable to those of the ancient individuals. A significant correlation was observed between bone Pb and Cd (r=0.61, P<0.001). Since bone cadmium accumulation leads to osteoporosis, we have also tested the relationship between histomorphometrically assessed trabecular bone mass and bone cadmium both in modern and ancient individuals. No significant relationship was found between these two parameters.

Pre-industrial atmospheric pollution: was it important for the pH of acid-sensitive Swedish lakes?

Acid rain has caused extensive surface water acidification in Sweden since the mid-20th century. Sulfur emissions from fossil-fuel burning and metal production were the main sources of acid deposition. In the public consciousness, acid deposition is strongly associated with the industrial period, in particular the last 50 years. However, studies of lake-water pH development and atmospheric pollution, based on analyses of lake sediment deposits, have shown the importance of a long-term perspective. Here, we present a conceptual argument, using the sediment record, that large-scale atmospheric acid deposition has impacted the environment since at least Medieval times. Sulfur sources were the pre-industrial mining and metal industries that produced silver, lead and other metals from sulfide ores. This early excess sulfur deposition in southern Sweden did not cause surface water acidification; on the contrary, it contributed to alkalization, i.e. increased pH and productivity of the lakes. Suggested mechanisms are that the excess sulfur caused enhanced cation exchange in catchment soils, and that it altered iron-phosphorus cycling in the lakes, which released phosphorus and increased lake productivity.

[Archaelogical documentation of the atmospheric pollution in antiquity]. / Documentazioni paleopatologiche dell'inquinamento atmosferico nell'antichita.

Authors examines the paleopathologic evidences of the atmosferic pollution in ancient time, point out the attention on two principal findings: pulmonar anthracosis and lead exposure. Pulmonar anthracosis is present in many mummified bodies and was due to the deposition on the pulmonar alveoli of carbon particles coming from the combustion of oils or vegetables for illumination, cooking or heating. Lead atmosferic pollution was very high between V century B.C. and III century A.D. in the North emisphere, in consequence to the impressive quantity of lead produced by Greek and Roman metallurgic technology (perhaps 80,000 metric tons per year around the start of I century AD). Cumulative lead fallout to the Greenland Ice Sheet during these eight centuries was as high as 15 percent of that caused by the massive use of lead alkyl additives in gasoline since the 1930s. Finally, the high atmosferic lead concentration caused a high exposure of humans to the lead: in fact paleopathologists, have clarely demonstrated a high quantity of lead concentration in the human bone dated to the period between III century B.C. and VI century AD circa.

[Lead and health during antiquity]. / Lyijy ja terveys antiikin aikana.

The possibility of widespread lead exposure during antiquity has awakened interest during the last few decades. The purpose of this study was to examine: 1) possible sources of lead exposure, 2) ideas concerning the health hazards of lead, 3) the extent of lead exposure, and 4) the influence of lead on public health during antiquity. Both written and archaeological data seem to prove that part of the population was exposed to lead during antiquity. Occupational exposure was most probably most important, but food and wine also played a part. The role of water in this context is hard to evaluate. Lead exposure by medical and cosmetic use was most probably epidemiologically unimportant. Evidently some population groups occasionally suffered from lead poisoning. There is, however, no reason to suppose that lead had something to do with the fate of the Roman aristocracy or the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Lead in ancient human bones and its relevance to historical developments of social problems with lead.

Concentrations of metabolic lead in buried ancient bones are obscured by replacement of calcium in apatite by excessive amounts of soil moisture Pb. Concentrations of metabolic barium in bones are affected in a similar way. Added soil Pb and Ba, expressed as log(Pb/Ca) versus log(Ba/Ca) among various bones at a given burial site, are positively covariant, with about 5-fold more soil Pb added for each unit of added soil Ba. The typical natural metabolic Ba/Ca ratio in contemporary people can be measured unambiguously because it as unaffected by industrial pollution. It applies to ancient people because it has not changed historically. The intercept of the covariance curve for buried bones of a given ancient population at the known metabolic Ba/Ca ratio indexes the corresponding metabolic Pb/Ca ratio in bones of that population. Lead levels which prevailed in Romans appear to have been similar to those in contemporary people, which are approximately 1000-fold above natural levels in humans determined by this method in ancient Peruvians. This indicates that studies of natural biochemical reactions in cells free of industrial Pb should be made, because most present biochemical knowledge is founded on data obtained from systems polluted with Pb 1000 to 100000-fold above natural levels. The 5000 year history of smelting Pb by humans indicates that a system of education fostered by genetically common lower brain center functions operated on hundreds of successive generations in a context of cultural changes invoked by feedback from developments in engineering technologies to give rise to the difference between present typical and prehistoric natural levels of Pb in humans. Archaeological and anthropological studies of early developments in writing, music and metallurgy by ancient Peruvians and Persian peoples should be combined with PET-scan studies of their descendants to discover if, as preliminary archaeological data suggest, the two ancient populations differed on a genetic basis in higher brain functions, yet are indistinguishable as metallurgical engineers. This would demonstrate that higher centers of the human brain did not exercise guiding control, through hundreds of generations, over those developments of engineering technologies which resulted in the extreme pollution of the earth's biosphere with poisonous Pb.