In recent years, the evidence that some plastic products are leaching harmful chemicals into our food supply has become irrefutable. Legal bans on some plastics have been enacted, and awareness campaigns have been undertaken by concerned citizens, to make the public aware of these problems, and to advocate for safer alternatives. Safer plastics are being developed and marketed to the public, with many consumers eager to pay a little more for a better product. Other people avoid plastics altogether, fearing that there may not be a “safer” plastic. For more details visit my previous post on the subject.

There is a historical precedent for this social, environmental and health problem, with a link to food related items. Lead, and lead containing metal alloys such as pewter, were used widely in the manufacture, storage and service of food and beverages, going back as far as the Bronze Age, despite the fact that they carried tremendous health risks from their production and use. According to Milton A. Lesser, of the Department of Physiology at Ohio State University, lead and cast copper artifacts made during the “Bronze Age indicated that ancient man had discovered the smelting process and was rendering and purifying metals to make useful and decorative objects” (Lesser, 1988).

Even as these metals came into wider use, their health risks were known. Hippocrates (460-377 BCE), the ancient Greek physician, “described the symptoms of lead poisoning as appetite loss, colic, pallor, weight loss, fatigue, irritability, and nervous spasms. Among the earliest records, there are notes that lead miners and individuals who worked with lead developed ailments that resulted in their early demise. This was first well documented by the Egyptians who used slaves in their mines and later by the Pre-Greeks, Greeks, and Romans” (Lesser, 1988).

Harry Arthur Waldron wrote, “the Romans’ lead technology was impressive. They manufactured sheet lead and had ingenious methods of rolling and jointing pipes, which were the basis of their water-carrying systems. The amount of lead consumed by the Romans was extraordinary. In building the great aqueduct at Lyons it had been estimated that 12,000 tons of lead were used on just one of the siphon units” (Waldron 1973).

Lead was used in the manufacturing of many items, including utensils, cups and plates, in ceramic glazes, as well as in vessels used to manufacture wine and cider. Sapa was made by boiling acidic wine in lead-lined vessels. “This yields a sweet syrup due to the formation of lead acetate. Most early Greek and Roman wines contained sapa, which also was used to sweeten food because these civilizations had no readily available source of sugar. Recent analyses of ancient Greek and Roman wine vessels indicated that wine stored in them had a considerable lead content” (Lesser, 1988).

Waldron wrote that the practice of adding sapa was “so universal that Pliny remarked indignantly that ‘genuine, unadulterated wine is not to be had now, not even by the nobility.’ And he was right to complain for, he comments, ‘From the excessive use of such wines arise dangling . . . paralytic hands, echoing Dioscorides, who wrote that corrected wine was ‘most hurtful to the nerves’” (Waldron 1973). As the Roman Empire expanded, the mining and manufacturing of lead increased across Europe. And while several notable historians have suggested that lead poisoning contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, this theory is still rather contentious.

Lesser indicates that during the Middle Ages, “the writings of medieval physicians indicated an awareness of both the sources and symptoms of lead poisoning. U. Ellenberg in 1473 published “On the Poisonous and Noxious Vapors and Fumes of Metals” and later G. Agricola (1556) published “De Re Metallica.”” Even with this awareness, “the Middle Ages saw a marked increase in the use of lead and lead-containing products” (Lesser, 1988).

According to Neil Beagrie, “in the Medieval period there were essentially two main grades of pewter used for vessels. A hard high-quality alloy of tin with perhaps 1-3% copper used for plates and dishes and a softer cheaper alloy of tin with 10 to 20% lead used for hollow-ware such as pots or flagons [pitcher]. Analysis has shown that sepulchral chalices [footed cups] and patens [plates] of the late medieval period could contain much higher levels of lead, in some cases as much as 75%” (Beagrie 1989).

Lesser adds that, during the Colonial period, “there was extensive manufacture and use of glazed earthenware, pewter, lead pipe, lead shot, and lead type for printing. Red and white lead was used as pigments for paints and lead acetate and lead oxide were used to sweeten and whiten bread. Lead intoxication was rampant during the Colonial Period in America and may have been involved in accusations of witchcraft because individuals with lead poisoning neuropathy often show weird behavior” (Lesser, 1988).

With the well known effects of lead poisoning, it can be hard to believe that it took thousands of years for the use of lead to be discontinued, at least at the consumer level. However, it was concern for occupational and environmental health that eventually tipped the scale against lead. Lesser wrote, “it was not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that occupational health was recognized as an important governmental public health issue. The United States and several European countries (Britain, France, Germany) passed legislation designed to protect workers from dangerous toxic environments. Congress passed the Occupational Health Act in 1970, which created the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Limits for the acceptable levels of lead in air, water, and food were set by NIOSH. These levels have been revised downward as new evidence became available on the vulnerability of infants and developing children to relatively low levels of lead in the environment” (Lesser, 1988).

Luckily for us, the story of lead has a happy ending, at least in countries where such legislation has been enacted and enforced. “The reduction of lead in gasoline, controlling the use of lead pigments in paints and printing inks, and banning of lead-based glazes on pottery and ceramic ware have resulted in a reduction of both industrial and population exposure to lead. There is no way that an important metal like lead can be removed from the environment, but with increased vigilance and control we can markedly reduce the exposure of animals and humans to lead” (Lesser, 1988).

Will we be so lucky with plastics? Only time will tell.