# Is there any evidence the Romans knew lead was bad for you?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-evidence-the-romans-knew-lead-was-bad-for-you/1019789>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Tags:** wine\
**Created:** [June 18, 2025, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-evidence-the-romans-knew-lead-was-bad-for-you/1019789 "2025-06-18T03:58:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 15

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-evidence-the-romans-knew-lead-was-bad-for-you/1019789/15 "2025-06-19T23:45:50Z")

</div>

> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#):
>
> The effects of low lead poisoning, like from lead water pipes, is slow – takes many years for symptoms to show, and often show up mostly in the next generation – the children of the drinkers.

I didn’t bring up the Romans in the other thread. The following post was a response to another post:

> [@Limits to technological collapse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-to-technological-collapse/1019539/40):
>
> There may have been some reason to think it was known and forgotten before the Romans found out the hard way, or decided they didn’t care as you suggest

What I stated on this subject was:

> [@Limits to technological collapse?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/limits-to-technological-collapse/1019539/27):
>
> I’m reminded that civilization has lost the understanding of the dangers of lead several times.

That was based on the history of metallurgy which showed that processing of lead was known to be dangerous as well as the use of lead eating and drinking utensils. Records and artifacts show that the mining and refinement processes along with the use of lead products changed over time indicative of the realization of the dangers, punctuated by returning to the use of lead from time to time.

However, it was quite easy to find that the danger of lead was known to the Romans, and as usual mining and processing showed the danger in far less than a lifetime.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-evidence-the-romans-knew-lead-was-bad-for-you/1019789)._