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Good question. Romans studied lead poisoning to some extent. Their word for lead poisoning was saturnism [1]. Which makes me think they either didn't know any

by mkl95 5y ago

Good question. Romans studied lead poisoning to some extent. Their word for lead poisoning was saturnism [1]. Which makes me think they either didn't know any better, or they found out so late that they could not afford to replace their lead with a safer material. [1] https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/lead-poisoning-historical-perspective.html https://archive.epa.gov/epa/aboutepa/lead-poisoning-historic...

yesenadam 5y ago
> Romans studied lead poisoning to some extent. Their word for lead poisoning was saturnism[1] The linked article, surprisingly, doesn't seem to give any support at all for either of those statements.
- mkl95 5y ago
  Here's another one that focuses a bit more on Rome: https://culturacolectiva.com/history/plumbism-disease-that-might-have-sparked-deliriums-in-roman-emperors https://culturacolectiva.com/history/plumbism-disease-that-m... > Known as plumbism (or saturnism in Latin as a reference both to lead and plumb, but also to the god Saturn known to be mentally unbalanced and aggressive), this was a very well-known disease by ancient alchemists though it wasn’t really attributed to Roman emperors.