HISTORY: Ancient Rome's Pollution Problem

Lead exposure might sound like a 21st century issue, but people were subjected to significant levels during antiquity too, which affected cognitive development

- ARISTOS GEORGIOU

LEAD POLLUTION LIKELY LED to widespread declines in IQ during the ancient Roman era, a study has found.

The negative health effects of lead exposure in modernity have been widely recognized. Over the past 150 years or so, atmospheric lead pollution has largely resulted from burning fossil fuels, particularly the ubiquitous use of leaded gasoline starting in the 1920s-a practice that has now been phased out.

While this might seem like a distinctly modern problem, historical and archaeological evidence-such as ancient texts and skeletal remains indicate that people living across Roman territory thousands of years by a significant part of the ancient Roman economy.

"The Roman period, both the republic and the empire, was among the most important in the history of Western civilization," study lead author Joseph McConnell, with the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, told Newsweek. "Lead pollution from Roman-era silver mining and smelting arguably is the earliest unambiguous example of large-scale (continental to hemispheric) human impacts on the environment." ago were subjected to significant levels of atmospheric lead exposure that potentially impacted human health.

Although there were a number of exposure routes in antiquity, including the use of glazed tableware, paints, cosmetics and intentional ingestion, the most significant source for the non-elite, rural majority of the population may have been through background air pollution arising from the mining and smelting of silver and lead ores.