Lead is a versatile, common metal that has been used for many applications throughout history. However, it is also incredibly deadly in even the smallest of amounts. While our ancestors believed that lead was an insignificant part of life, it actually could have ravaged their minds and bodies without their knowledge. Its effects still harm us today.

10 Ancient Rome

In 1983, Canadian scientist Jerome Nriagu examined the diets of 30 Roman emperors from 30 BC to AD 220 and made an astounding discovery: They were filled with lead. At the time, it was common to boil down grapes into syrups as a flavoring for food. This was done in copper kettles that released huge amounts of lead into the product.

Knowing that emperors were gluttonous in their eating habits, this could have led to chronic lead poisoning and, as Nriagu thought, the fall of Rome. While Nriagu’s conclusions have been disputed by various studies, others have backed him up based on the pipes of the Tiber River, long the chief source of water for Rome. This water contained around 100 times as much lead as fresh springwater.

9 The First Artificial Sweetener

Sadly, lead was humanity’s first artificial sweetener. Where sugar couldn’t readily be obtained, lead acetate was used because of its naturally sweet taste. In Roman times, lead acetate was called sapa and was frequently added to wine.

In 1047, Pope Clement II suddenly died from an unknown cause. A 1959 examination showed that he suffered from chronic lead poisoning, most likely from lead acetate in wine. Clement II was German, and the Germans of that time had a custom of sweetening their wines in the Roman way.

There are even rumors that Ludwig van Beethoven, another wine lover, was ill from chronic low-level lead poisoning related to his consumption of lead-laced wines. A study of his bones showed high levels of lead, which is the most likely cause of his well-known deafness in later years.

8 Toxic Rum

When 17 males were exhumed from the Royal Naval Hospital cemetery in Antigua, it was discovered that their bones were tainted with lead. The normal amount of lead in bones is 5–30 ppm (parts per million). But in the bones of 14 of the men, it ranged from 13–336 ppm, with 80 ppm being lead poisoning.

One hypothesis for this high level of lead could be lead that entered Antiguan rum in 18th-century distilleries. In the past, the Royal Naval fleet gave out rum rations to sailors. This could have caused chronic lead poisoning in many sailors, including the 17 buried in Antigua.

If true, this has severe implications for other members of the Royal Navy who served in the West Indies and may have consumed similarly tainted rum. The rum ration was an established tradition in the British Royal Navy at the time.

7 Artists And Lead

In 1713, Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini wrote in his book De Morbis Artificum Diatriba that he knew many artists and painters who suffered similar symptoms unique to their profession: chronic sickness, a colorless complexion, and melancholy. He was one of the first to theorize that “painter’s colic” was the result of the paints they used.

This ingestion of deadly metals was called saturnism and affected several famous artists. Throughout much of history, lead was involved in the creation of most paints. A study showed that this most likely affected Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francisco Goya, Candido Portinari, and possibly Vincent van Gogh. They all displayed symptoms of “painter’s colic” and worked closely with lead paints for much of their lives.

6 American Pewter

In the first years of colonization in America by the English, the most common types of dishes, cups, and other serving containers were all coated in a deadly layer of lead. Pewter was widely used in musket balls, too. So anyone at the time who used a musket—which was the vast majority of colonists—would have been exposed.

However, wealthy Americans in the 1600s were the ones who mainly used pewter dishes, so much so that researchers can tell who was wealthy back then from the amount of lead in their bones. For example, Colonel Joseph Bridger, one of the wealthiest and most prominent Virginians of his time, died in 1686. But when his body was exhumed and tested by medical professionals in 2007, the lead levels in his bones were measured at 149 ppm, which would have been seven times the average amount of lead.

5 Medieval Lead Glaze

Medieval Europe’s upper class used lead on their silverware and dishes as a sort of glaze so that they were easier to wash and more aesthetically appealing. In 2007, six cemeteries from Germany to Denmark were tested. Interestingly, lead was virtually nonexistent among the serfs and other poor, but it was dangerously high in the urban dwellers.

The lead on the dishes could be absorbed by the acidic foods that were frequently consumed by urbanites of the times. When salty foods were stored in lead-covered containers, the glaze would dissolve and the lead could leak in and contaminate the stored food. These dishes were hard to come by in poor rural towns, so lead poisoning distinguished rural and urban dwellers even more than the rich and poor.

4 Samurai Makeup Poisoning

During the Edo period of Japan’s history (1603–1867), many samurai suffered from their own beauty expectations. When the bones of 70 men, women, and children from that time were tested, researchers were shocked to discover lead levels as high as 120 times the harmful level in the bones of samurai children.

Environmentally, lead levels were actually low during the Edo period. But there was a surprising source for the contamination: mother’s makeup. Aristocratic women used a cosmetic white face powder that children may have encountered while nursing. Lead based and incredibly toxic, this face powder probably caused many children to die or suffer severe mental impacts.

3 Lead In Commercial Paints

Despite the lead industry knowing about the danger of lead in paint for decades, lead continued to be used in paints well into modern times. As far back as the 1920s, paint companies fought to have safety labels removed from their products even though as much as 70 percent of a can of paint was made of lead pigments.

A mere thumbnail-sized chip could cause a young child to have convulsions. When children became ill from this, the lead companies claimed that it was the fault of the parents, especially “uneducable Negro and Puerto Rican” parents who “failed” to stop children from placing their fingers and toys in their mouths.

In 1949, Maryland’s House of Delegates passed a bill banning lead in children’s toys. But this was repealed after overwhelming pushback. In 1959, the New York City Board of Health banned interior paints containing more than 1 percent lead. In 1971, the federal government banned lead paints in public housing. But it wasn’t until 1978 that the federal government banned lead in virtually all paints.

2 Ghost Factories

Lead production in the US may have shut down decades ago, but the toxicity remains. Wherever there were once lead factories—now dubbed “ghost factories“—high amounts of lead can still be found in the soil. From the 1930s to the 1960s, many of these factories operated by smelting lead from the various ores that contained it.

William Eckel, an environmental scientist, first called attention to this after writing that as many as 400 unknown shuttered factories could be contaminated by lead. He paid to have the soil tested at eight locations, with all but one testing positive for high lead levels.

Despite the EPA ordering the clean-up of lead in the soil in 2001, there has been virtually no action. Children who live and play near these factories are particularly affected.

1 Leaded Gasoline

In 1921, Thomas Midgley Jr. invented tetraethyl lead, a compound that would make cars incredibly efficient. Tetraethyl lead remained in gasoline until it was banned in 1986 due to the debilitating mental and physical effects it caused.

Since the ban, blood-lead levels in US residents have dropped by 75 percent. Before lead gasoline was phased out, it is estimated that 5,000 Americans died every year from lead-related heart disease.

There is also a high correlation between the rise and fall of lead gasoline and the rise and fall of violent crimes committed throughout several countries in the 20th century. Twenty years after lead gasoline was introduced, crime rates skyrocketed. But after lead gasoline was banned, crime began to fall, which shows just how significant this gasoline really was.

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects, but until he finishes one, he will write for for his bread and butter. You can write him at [email protected].

The Victorians were a clever lot. They gave us steam trains, stamps, photographs, and the first public flushing toilet. But they were also rather accident-prone. A bit like letting a child play with matches in a firework factory, the Victorians had a lot of dangerous chemicals at their fingertips. In the days before health and safety, their idea of protection was to print a skull and crossbones on a bottle of arsenic. The flaw with this plan was that they then happily sold the same arsenic over the counter as rat bait, often with dire consequences.

Let’s take a look at a world where appearances were everything and safety came second. It was the 19th century, and the Victorians found some pretty weird ways of accidentally doing away with themselves.

10 Wallpaper

Rather than 50 Shades of Gray, the Victorians were passionate about the color green. In fact, green wallpaper was to the home what an iPad Air is to tablets. This love of green came about because of the end of the window tax and gas lamps. With natural light flooding in during the day and better light at night, the Victorians unleashed their inner passion for bright colors.

The fashionable color to dress the walls with wasn’t just any green. It had to be a lush shade called Scheele’s Green. Not only was it bright, but it resisted fading—an extra boon. The dark side of this colorful wall dressing was that it slowly poisoned people. Copper arsenite, an arsenic derivative, gave it the rich color.^[1] Breathing air polluted with arsenic vapor had the potential to kill . . . and often did.

Whole families ailed and died, with children especially at risk. The signs of arsenic poisoning were similar to diphtheria, so many politicians remained skeptical of the danger. And those doctors who did voice concern about arsenic were often publicly ridiculed, especially by companies producing the wallpaper!

It took until 1903 for arsenic compounds to be forbidden as a food additive, but the use of arsenic in wallpaper was never formally banned.

9 Baby Bottles

Roman mothers used hollow horns to feed their babies, and baby bottles were nothing new in Victorian times.^[2] What was new was a special glass bottle fitted with rubber tubing and a teat. The idea was the infant sucked on the rubber tube, like sucking cola through a straw.

These bottles were backed by a popular marketing campaign and given names such as “The Little Cherub” or “The Princess.” Mothers loved how an infant could feed themselves; it was a source of great pride. These feeding bottles became the go-to accessory for the modern Victorian mother—but with deadly consequences.

There was a basic design flaw: The rubber tubing was set into the glass and nearly impossible to clean. Inside the bottle, warm milk made it the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. The advice given by Mrs. Beeton, the household guru of the day, didn’t help. Writing in 1861, she declared it wasn’t necessary to wash the bottles for two to three weeks.

The result was babies drinking a soup of bacteria, often with fatal consequences. Indeed, the bottles soon gained another name: “murder bottles.” This, along with the condemnation of doctors, should have stopped their use. But it didn’t. Sadly, many mothers were taken in by advertising and continued using them regardless.

8 Carbolic Acid

The Victorians just couldn’t get the balance right. Take hygiene, for example. On the one hand, they used dirty baby bottles, and on the other, they came up with the saying, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” Top this off with new theories about germs causing infection, and the urge to clean became obsessive. So they poisoned themselves with carbolic acid.

Every household had caustic soda or carbolic acid, used as cleaners, in a cupboard somewhere. But therein lay the problem. These deadly products came in packaging that was identical to other household items, including foods.^[3]

It was easy to confuse one box with another and accidentally poison the cakes. In September 1888, this is exactly what happened when carbolic acid was mistaken for baking soda. Thirteen people became sick, and five died.

It was another 14 years before the Pharmacy Act made it illegal for chemicals to be stored in similar bottles to ordinary items.

7 Lead

It’s almost as if the Victorians wanted to die!

With the Industrial Revolution, cities started to expand. This meant supplying households with water. Reservoirs were built to supply standpipes in the poorer districts or houses in affluent areas.

However, much of that water traveled along lead piping, picking up the deadly toxin as it went. Interestingly, it is from the Latin word for lead, plumbum, that we derive the term “plumbing.” What makes this all the more ironic is that in 1847 and 1848, the British government wrote laws making it a criminal offense to pollute drinking water.

But the danger didn’t end with water. Lead was added to paint to stop it from flaking and to make the colors vivid. The Victorians slathered lead paint over furniture, cots, and even children’s toys. When children gnawed on their cribs or chewed on toys, they accidentally poisoned themselves.^[4]

6 Laudanum

Laudanum was the Victorian equivalent of aspirin. It was a cure-all that settled nerves, eased pain, and ensured restful sleep. The only problem was that laudanum is a syrup of opium.

Laudanum was available from any pharmacy to buy, and it was affordable at around 25 drops for one penny.^[5] While the wealthy looked down on the poor as laudanum addicts, they failed to see their own dependence and merrily imbibed this addictive cordial. Laudanum was widely marketed to women to ease their ailments, such as menstrual cramps and “hysteria.” Ironically, it’s possible laudanum that was taken by women to ease the symptoms of arsenic poisoning by their green wallpaper!

Of course, opium is addictive. This meant people became dependent on the feelings of euphoria it created and took more and more. The alternative was to withdraw, with the typical symptoms of tremors, hallucinations, and sweats. With the doses unregulated and laudanum freely available, overdose was common.

5 Adulterated Bread

The Victorians judged by appearance. They tended to link white to purity, and whiter meant better. They had an obsession with white bread. With all the nasty wheat germ and bran taken out, they looked on white bread as pure and healthy. By some twisted logic, adding a chemical whitener—alum—made it even better.

Compounds referred to as alum are double sulfate salts of metals like aluminum or chromium. Traditionally, alum was used in the medieval wool trade to fix dyes and was later used in styptic pencils. It doesn’t even sound like it would be healthy.

Sadly, alum has no nutritional value. The addition of alum robbed the poor, for whom bread was a staple of goodness, and led to malnutrition. Indeed, it contributed to a range of deficiency-related diseases. Worse even than that, alum irritates the bowel wall and can cause long-term stomach upsets or constipation. For small children, this was a step too far and caused deaths.^[6]

4 Boracic Acid In Milk

Boracic acid belongs to a family of mild acids which include borax and boric acid. They are mostly used today in insecticides. Doesn’t make it sound a great addition to milk, does it? However, here we find home guru Mrs. Beeton raising her hand again.^[7]

In the days before pasteurization and fridges, milk could contain harmful bacteria and go bad quickly. To prevent this, Mrs. Beeton advised the addition of boracic acid to milk as a preservative. It also had the benefit of sweetening the flavor slightly and removing any sour, tainted taste.

The effects of boracic acid on adults are usually mild, such as nausea, stomach cramps and diarrhea. However, the chemical hid the taste of turned milk, meaning many people drank what wasn’t fit for consumption—with upsetting consequences. For children, too much boracic acid can cause seizures, neurological problems, and even death—in the very group most in need of the health-giving benefits of milk.

3 ‘Corpse’ Candles

At the beginning of the 19th century, candles were either made from tallow or beeswax. The former burned with a sooty flame and smelled bad, while the latter were expensive. But a new process formulated in 1810 changed this.

A French scientist, Michel Chevreul, hit on a way of separating tallow and adding a secret ingredient which made for cheap, high-quality candles. Although banned in his native France, these candles took off big-time in England. The craze for these compound candles peaked in 1835 and 1836.^[8]

However, one night, a professor of chemistry was working late by the light of his new candle. He smelled a garlic odor coming from the melted wax and became suspicious. He knew arsenic compounds had a garlic-like smell and correctly identified the secret ingredient as arsenic. Professor Everitt ran tests, confirmed his suspicion, and made his deadly findings public. Writing in The Lancet, he described these new products as “corpse candles” because of their deadly vapor.

2 Gas Lighting

After candlelight, one can only imagine how magical gas lighting must have appeared in the 19th century. However, it was not without considerable risks. The Victorians used mostly coal gas for their gaslights, which was a cocktail of hydrogen, sulfur, methane, and carbon monoxide.

This mix was a deadly, with hazards including suffocation and carbon monoxide poisoning, plus the risk of explosion. Indeed, the image of a wilting Victorian lady suffering a fit of the vapors may be due in part to a slow leak of carbon monoxide into a sitting room, coupled with wearing a tight corset.^[9]

1 Physicians

Victorian doctors worked within the medical knowledge of the day. Most medical procedures were based on trying to restore balance to the body. Thus, laxatives, purges, and leeches were popular as a means of draining foul humors. Also, doctors believed small doses of poison had medicinal properties.

The majority of the time, patients survived despite treatment, not because of it. However, occasionally, the medics hit on something by accident, like prescribing cigarettes to asthmatics. The active ingredient, arsenic (again!), was transported in a tobacco that contained a natural derivative of atropine—which opens up the airways. So the patients did improve, but not for the reason the doctors thought.^[10]

+ Anthrax In House Plaster

It’s generally not a good idea to coat the walls of your home with a deadly bacterium. But that’s what the Victorians did—albeit rarely.

Prior to gypsum plaster, walls were lined with lime plaster. This was a mix of lime strengthened with animal hair from goats, cattle, sheep, or horses. While anthrax wasn’t common in Victorian England, it did occur. Products from infected animals, such as skin, hair, or wool, were then a possible source of infection for people.

People can pick up anthrax through the skin abrasions or inhaling it, so let’s hope the hair from a few infected animals never made it as far as wall plaster.^[11]

Dr. Pippa Elliott is a veterinarian who is passionate about animals and history. At school, she was described as a “Trivia Queen,” and this is something she has never grown out of.