Ancient Romans likely breathed lead pollution

by T.M. Brown, Jan 6, 2025 in Science


From 27 B.C.E. to 180 C.E., Rome enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity, the Pax Romana. It witnessed the beginning of the Roman Empire, the building of the Colosseum, and the expansion of the empire to encompass the entire Mediterranean and much of the British Isles. However, the industrial-scale silver smelting that accompanied such prosperity came with a dark side: lead pollution.

In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists for the first time quantified atmospheric levels of this pollutant and found the toxic metal likely led to diminished IQs for many ancient Romans.

“This is certainly a very interesting paper,” says Christopher Loveluck, an archaeologist at the University of Nottingham who was not involved in the study. “Lead emissions in the vicinity of mines and smelting sites by themselves could certainly have had an impact on the cognition and health of surrounding populations, and potentially wider rural populations.”

Today, scientists know that even minor, short-term exposure to lead-contaminated pipes, paints, and toys can lead to heart and cognitive problems, especially in infants and young children. And lead was ubiquitous in ancient Rome, including in ceramics, cosmetics, painted glaze, water pipes, and as a sweetener in wine. Researchers have even argued lead poisoning hastened the downfall of the Roman Empire.

Some Romans recognized its dangers. Pliny the Elder called the white lead powder used in Roman cosmetics a “deadly poison,” says Caleb Finch, a scientist at the University of Southern California who was not involved in the study. But although tooth enamel and skeletal remains testify to lead poisoning among some Romans, scholars have debated how serious a problem it was.

Airborne pollution accounted for much of the exposure, says Joseph McConnell, a research scientist at the Desert Research Institute and lead author of the study. The mining and smelting of silver from a lead-rich mineral called galena releases the toxic metal as a vapor, he says. “For every gram of silver produced, something like 10,000 grams of lead were produced.”

Met Office Try To Shut Down Debate On Junk Temperature Measurements

by P. Homewood, Jan 7, 2025 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat


hris Morrison has the latest on how the Met Office, in league with the green blob, are trying to shut down debate on the junk weather station scandal:

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After a year of damaging revelations about the state of the Met Office’s temperature measuring network, the Green Blob-funded ‘fact-checker’ Science Feedback has sprung to the defence of the state-funded U.K. weather service. It has published a long ‘fact check’ seeking to exonerate practices that have recently come to light including the locating of stations with huge heat corrupted ‘uncertainties’ and the publication of invented data from 103 non-existent sites. Inept is a word that springs to mind. At one point, Science Feedback justifies the estimation of data at the non-existent stations by referring to the hastily changed Met Office explanation for station/location long-term averages. The original and now deleted Met Office webpage referenced station names and provided single location coordinates including one improbable siting next to the sea on Dover beach. This would appear to be a new low in the world of so-called fact-checking – designating copy as ‘misleading’ based on an explanation changed after the article was published.

Full story here.

England & Wales Rainfall Trends

by P. Homewood, Jan 8, 2025 in NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat


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https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadukp/data/monthly/HadEWP_monthly_totals.txt

It does not need me to tell you that it was quite wet last year. It was in fact ninth wettest in England & Wales since 1766, though nowhere near the two wettest years in 1872 and 1768.

For the last decade or so, we have been going through the same sort of weather as in the 1870s and 80s, as well as the 1920s.

But averages and trends are not particularly meaningful – nature does not do averages and straight lines! You could have ten years all with the same rainfall, or you could have five years with high rainfall and five years of drought, and you could get the same average.

If you just look at the distribution of wet years, there is no obvious pattern: