Lead Production: The Rise And Fall Of The Roman Empire In Ancient Europe

The lead in the environment is formed naturally in the earth’s crust mainly as Lead Sulphide. The main exposure channels of lead entering the environment through atmospheric lead is predominantly from automobile emissions. Other lead exposure routes include lead-acid batteries, paint chips, fertilizers, utilized ammunition, pesticides, and other industrial byproducts. The means of conveying lead from key emission sources is mainly through the air. Concerning the sources of lead in drinking water, normally lead reaches into the residents’ water after it is channeled from their water treatment plant or the wells. To be more precise, the source of lead in people’s water supply largely emanates from their households’ pipes or lead solder from plumbing. The most typical cause of the lead formation is from the corrosion reaction by the lead pipes or solders and the water. The acidity as a result of the low pH, dissolved oxygen, and little mineral contents in the water are main reasons of the corrosion. The lead amounts in the water become high if the water spends a long duration of time stagnated inside the old pipes.

Lead was discovered in 3000 BC, making it one of the earlier metals discovered. Lead became popular due to how easy it is to

The author further goes on to explain what is being done about lead poisoning, and finally explaining how to know for sure if a person has lead poisoning and how to have your home tested for lead poisoning. The author pays great attention to detail by providing facts to support the information provided in the article. For example, the author states, "75% of houses and other buildings built before 1978 have lead-based paint. When the paint is in good condition it does not pose a threat. When it chips and peels however, it can make a child very ill" (Heck, Where does lead come from section, para. 1). This article clearly achieves its purpose, which is to inform the public about prevalence of lead and the ongoing risks associated with lead poisoning. This article is not about one specific case of lead poisoning, which is evident because the author talks about the history of lead use and the laws relating to lead use in this country.

Batteries: The major usage of lead is making storage batteries. The grey colour negative electrode is made of Pb and the red colour on the positive electrode is PbO2 in the battery. Airplanes, automobiles, electric vehicles, trucks, tanks, and broadcasting station all use the storage batteries as the energy source of light and making one battery needs dozens of kilograms of lead (Crompton 2000).

According to ( Compton's by Britannica, 2011, SIRS discover) Lead is found in tap water and other water sources which is toxic metal

Gold was discovered in 1860 in Leadville. Mining in the Leadville Mining District began in 1860 and continued until 1999. During this time, the Leadville district produced about 28.9 million tons of ore, including gold, silver, lead,molybdenum, zinc and copper. Leadville is known for its gold. The town had a gold rush in 1860. All of the gold added up to about 3 million dollars.Gold is mostly used in dentistry for fillings and other tools.That is what leadville colorado mined.

The rules for lead and copper have changed over the years, so let’s start at the beginning. Lead was originally regulated under the Public Health Service Act of 1962, which established a guideline of 0.050 mg/L (ppm) for lead in drinking water. This was carried over into the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. It wasn’t until 1991 that regulation changed significantly under the Lead and Copper Rule. This rule regulates how public water supplies must deal with the potential of lead and copper in the drinking water. Additionally, there is also the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act, which regulates the amount of lead that can be in products that could come into contact with drinking water, like pipes, plumbing fitting, fixtures, solder and flux.

The major sources of lead here were gasoline, paint chips and water from old plumbing. After lead was removed from gasoline and paint, blood lead levels (BLL) in children decreased on average from 16 mcg/dL to less than 3 mcg/dL. Residual lead persists in the environment, however. A toxic level is currently defined as 5 mcg/dL. In U.S. children age 1-5, the prevalence of BLLs >10 mcg/dL decreased from 88% to 4.4% between 1976 and 1994 and further dropped to 0.8% by 2010. Yet there are still almost half a million children in the U.S. with levels >5

This summer, I went to Europe and saw a lot of artifacts and structures from millennia ago. One particularly interesting venue was the ruins of Pompeii, where, up until the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was a very prosperous town within the Roman Empire. During our tour, our guide explained that some archaeologists believe one of the reasons that the town, as large as it was, fell so quickly to Mount Vesuvius was that the population was weakened from lead pipes and utensils. Lead, a somewhat common element that is toxic when eaten, inhaled, or enters your body in any way, was vital to the building of Roman cities. When he showed us where the pipes were located, I noticed that they ran straight through the most common rooms, which supported that

1900s, it may also be the case that the exposure of lead is also an important factor that affected

If, as seems likely, it was the upper levels of Roman society that suffered most from lead poisoning, some of these effects could have negatively affected those who ran the empire . Lead was in fact used for domestic water lines and in the main aqueducts. Its use was so common that the workers who produced the pipes were called plumbarii, which translates to “lead men” in English. This connection may seem valid, but when examined further the correlation is not convincing. An obvious argument against this hypothesis is the fact that, well beyond the fall of the Roman Empire, even into the modern era, lead pipes are being used with seemingly no recognized harmful effects. A more specific refutation lies in the hardness or softness of the water. “If the water has been flowing over sedimentary rocks then it acquires a calcium carbonate content which not only makes the water hard but also forms a shell inside the pipes effectively insulating them from the water flowing inside.” The land where roman towns were mostly built is sedimentary, so it can be reasonably assumed that local water reserves flowed through sedimentary deposits. With this calcium deposit inside the pipes the water and pipe are essentially not in contact with one another and therefore the lead cannot contaminate the water.

Lead is poisonous because once it enters your body it can form into other atoms like zinc and iron fooling the body into thinking they are there and not carrying out the vital functions they need. Lead atoms can also block neurotransmitters. In the 1920s there was essentially a lead "boom" and marketers began putting lead in everything including shoes, lightbulbs, and leaded gasoline, advertising that it was safe and even kid friendly (in some items) when it wasn't. The lead levels in the factories became so bad that the workers were becoming sick, hallucinating, going mad, and dying from being poisoned by lead. Scientist Robert Kehoe was hired by GM to "cover up" the lead threats saying the amount of lead was a naturally occurring. No one cared about the use of leaded gasoline and other leaded materials until Clair Patterson began to dig deeper into the research of lead in the

Lead poisoning in children was first discovered in 1890 in Queensland, Australia. The lead source was not identified until 1904, when a researcher traced it to the paint used on railings and verandahs. The first discovery of lead poisoning in the United States (with a traceable source) was in 1914; the child had chewed the paint off of his crib. At this time they linked lead poisoning as a cause of convulsions in children. As research progressed and more children were found with high lead levels, symptoms caused by lead were expanded to include lead meningitis, acute encephalopathy, intellectual dullness, reduced consciousness, seizures, comas, and death (Chisholm, 1982).

Lead, a naturally occurring metal and can be used in almost everything. It can cause serious health issues if it is exposed for a long time, particularly in children as they are more susceptible to absorbing and retaining lead in their bodies. Each year, in the United States 310,000 of 1- to 5-year age group are found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, which can cause a wide range of symptoms. (1)

To please the public the industry also said they would conduct research about the effects of lead, but the research was funded by the lead industry so they skewed the presentation of the results to the public. Soon there were also cases reported of lead poisoning in children from their habit of biting lead-painted toys. This time the lead industry tried to distract the public by increasing their advertisements highlighting the benefits of lead using the mascot of the Dutch Boy Painter and slogans, such as “ethyl is to gasoline what vitamins are to food.” However, by the 1970’s with the introduction of safer elements and the decrease in public support, the lead industry lost its importance in the world.