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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 3545080, member: 76194&quot;]The problem with the lead theory is that lead forms a coat exposed to moisture. I have some .22lr bullets I haven&#039;t fired, sitting in a closet, and over 4 years they&#039;ve formed a nice patina over the lead projectiles. A lead water pipe would be coated by a patina layer over a few weeks, and minerals in the water would quickly form an additional layer around the interior of the pipes. Lead pipes were common in the western world well into the 19th century. From the colonial era of the US to the 20th century (when most lead pipes were replaced), I assure you a huge portion of the US population (including business men, politicians, scientists, and regular laborers) drank water from lead pipes. And the US settlements survived quite well from the 1600s through early 20th century despite a huge portion drinking from lead pipes, including most people you find in our history books. There was no widespread madness or collapse despite them drinking from lead pipes for a period of time as long as the time from Augustus to Constantine I.</p><p><br /></p><p>Heck, populations in many European cities drank from lead pipes for periods larger than 400 years. Last I heard, London and Paris are still standing, and there was no chapter of widespread madness in the histories of both cities.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s not to say lead poisoning didn&#039;t kill a lot of Romans. Some used lead as a wine sweetener (though I doubt the practice was widespread as the customary wine sweetener was honey). And some women used arsenic as makeup...so probably some rich matrons died from Parkinson-like illnesses and dementia...provided they didn&#039;t die first of the billion other things that would kill you in a pre-industrial society (cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, sweating sickness, childbirth, infections, food poisoning, etc.) Those things probably did in most wealthy Romans in before they ever had chances to develop any symptoms of heavy metals poisoning.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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