Lead has been a favorite metal of industry since ancient times. It’s resistant to corrosion, bends without breaking, and it’s cheap. Lead was used extensively in ancient Rome, and is still found throughout modern plumbing systems. In fact, the Latin word for lead is where we get the word plumbing: plumbum. Unfortunately, lead is also extremely poisonous, especially to children.
Symptoms of lead exposure include cognitive decline, sterility, extreme fatigue, and even death. Lead harms every organ system in the body, but the central nervous system takes the biggest hit. One study found a 50 percent increase in violent crimes for each five micrograms per deciliter increase in blood lead concentration. Other studies find that children exposed to lead have “significant decreases in brain volume,“ poor academic performance, greater risk of ADHD and behavioral problems, as well as deficits in memory and executive functioning even at low levels of exposure.
