Scientists are exploring the role of lead pollution in the decline of the Roman Empire, proposing that chronic lead exposure from plumbing, wine, and cosmetics led to cognitive decline ...

Ancient lead pollution may have lowered IQs across the Roman Empire 'To my knowledge, it’s the first large-scale pollution event from industrial activities.' By Lauren Leffer ...

Silver fueled the rise of the Roman Empire. But the ancient process of mining and extracting silver was also making the air thick with lead, scientists found.

Scholars have debated lead poisoning’s impact on Roman history for decades. Some have even argued that lead poisoning played a role in the downfall of the Roman empire. Most of those arguments have ...

Research reveals that atmospheric lead pollution in the Roman Empire likely caused cognitive decline. The study is the first of its kind.

Some scholars have hypothesized that lead poisoning played an important role in the decline of the Roman Empire. But that idea has been called into question, at least when it comes to water ...

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 ...

Previous studies have documented the key role played by lead poisoning in the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman world widely used the toxic metal in its pipes and cookware as well as a food ...

Scientists are exploring the role of lead pollution in the decline of the Roman Empire, proposing that chronic lead exposure from plumbing, wine, and ...

The study also could add fuel to a fraught and long-standing debate whether mass lead poisoning could have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.