Lead in Archeological Human Bones Reflecting Historical Changes in Lead Production

Forty years ago,
in a seminal paper published in Science, Settle and
Patterson used archeological and historical data to
estimate the rates of worldwide lead production since the discovery
of cupellation, approximately 5000 years ago. Here, we record actual
lead exposure of a human population by direct measurements of the
concentrations of lead in petrous bones of individuals representing
approximately 12 000 years of inhabitation in Italy. This documentation
of lead pollution throughout human history indicates that, remarkably,
much of the estimated dynamics in lead production is replicated in
human exposure. Thus, lead pollution in humans has closely followed
anthropogenic lead production. This observation raises concerns that
the forecasted increase in the production of lead and other metals
might affect human health in the near future.