Did the romans die because thier pipes were made out of lead?
Well, they died because that was a long time ago. There is a lot of speculation that the Roman Empire broke apart because the massively prevalent use of lead in their makeup, in their pipes, in their drinking and eating dishes, and especially by using lead acetate to sweeten wines. Egyptians used lead too for their painting, makeup and general decorative arts. Lead is a heavy metal with extremely low levels in nature, so we as animals have a hard time getting out of our bodies and have little resistance to the damage it causes our bodies. It primarily comes from galena, a lead ore, and not normally found on the surface of the earth. Lead is a neurotoxin and generally terrible, it tends to replace iron, calcium and zinc in our bodies and stays there so those enzymes that would otherwise function no longer do. Its most damaging to developing fetuses, infants and toddlers but bad for everyone in general. Oh yeah, pencil lead USED to be lead but is now made from graphite – a form of carbon
