Did lead poisoning contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? It’s a question historians have long debated, since the Romans sweetened their wine with lead acetate and sipped tap water that flowed through lead pipes.

Learn how researchers examined lead levels in ice cores dating back to the Roman Empire, and found concentrations high enough to affect IQs.

The new research adds context to a long-standing debate about the role lead pollution and poisoning may have played in the collapse of the Roman Empire. Some historians have argued that Roman elites and emperors who purportedly displayed odd,

Lead pollution in ancient Rome likely dropped the average IQ, a study found. The research is based on an analysis of ice cores extracted from Greenland.

Lead pollution might sound like a modern problem, but people were subjected to significant levels during antiquity, too.

Atmospheric lead pollution likely caused cognitive decline among citizens of the Roman Empire, according to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers analyzed ice core records for an approximately thousand-year period corresponding roughly with the period from the Roman Republic through the decline of the empire,

Lead records from Arctic glaciers indicate that people all over Europe would have been affected by pollution from metal smelting during the Roman era

Lead exposure is responsible for a range of human health impacts, with even relatively low levels impacting the cognitive development of children. DRI scientists have previously used atmospheric pollu