ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025
Pan-European atmospheric lead pollution, enhanced blood lead levels, and cognitive decline from Roman-era mining and smelting.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rise and spread of lead-silver metallurgy deciphered from peatland archives.Science advances · 2026Article
- The use of leaded paints in an urban neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador: A case study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Geochemical constraints and heritage conflicts during cadmium stabilization of Zn-Pb-Ag tailings at a UNESCO World Heritage site.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Burden of 375 diseases and injuries, risk-attributable burden of 88 risk factors, and healthy life expectancy in 204 countries and territories, including 660 subnational locations, 1990-2023: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023.Lancet (London, England) · 2025Article
- Environmental lead risk in the 21st century.Communications earth & environment · 2025Review
- The cost of language: functionally over-dominant language circuits in the human brain may limit cognitive abilities and non-verbal executive functions.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
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14 authors.
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Abstract
Ancient texts and archaeological evidence indicate substantial lead exposure during antiquity that potentially impacted human health. Although lead exposure routes were many and included the use of glazed tablewares, paints, cosmetics, and even intentional ingestion, the most significant for the nonelite, rural majority of the population may have been through background air pollution from mining and smelting of silver and lead ores that underpinned the Roman economy. Here, we determined potential health effects of this air pollution using Arctic ice core measurements of Roman-era lead pollution, atmospheric modeling, and modern epidemiology-based relationships between air concentrations, blood lead levels (BLLs), and cognitive decline. Findings suggest air lead concentrations exceeded 150 ng/m
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