August 26, 2021: A study of 12,000-year-old Italian human bones by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has revealed the extent to which lead production has contaminated the people who refined it — with stark warnings about human health in the future.

With the researchers’ predictions of a 1,200% increase in demand for lead in energy storage applications, plus 300% more in solar PV, the report’s findings spell out the risks for future production, particularly in less developed regions and countries.

Lead in Archaeological Human Bones Reflecting Historical Changes in Lead Production, published on August 16 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, looked at lead exposure in the human population by measuring the concentrations of lead in the petrous bones of individuals going back about 12,000 years.

“This documentation of lead pollution throughout human history indicates that, remarkably, much of the estimated dynamics in lead production is replicated in human exposure,” the report says.

“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.”

The report, by Yigal Erel, Ron Pinhasi, Alfredo Coppa, Adi Ticher, Ofir Tirosh and Liran Carmel, says a lot of studies have confirmed the general pattern of lead production over the centuries, with a sharp increase around 5,000 years ago when cupellation — the refining process in which noble metals are separated from base metals using high temperatures — is believed to have been discovered.

Production then slowed until coins were introduced around 3,000 years ago, peaking during the Roman Empire.

Production rose again when silver mining in Germany prompted growth, and continued throughout the industrial revolution. However, lead has only been mined for its own sake in the last 250 years.

Ancient DNA from the petrous bones — the very hard, dense pyramid-shaped bone that protects the cochlea — from more than 100 humans who occupied Rome and nearby has been sequenced by the scientists.

“In the current study, we traced pollution through time in these same individuals, by measuring the elemental composition (Ca, Pb, Ba, and an additional 21 elements) of their petrous bones,” says the study.

“We demonstrate the use of elemental composition measurements in petrous bones, and how to modify the use of Ba/Ca ratios to account for diagenetic processes in this bone type.

“Using our method, we directly compute the level of lead pollution over time, and show that it closely follows the rate of worldwide lead production.”

The report predicts a 1,200% increase in demand for lead, cobalt and nickel for energy storage technologies and 300% for lead, nickel, silver and indium in solar panels, wind turbines and electronic devices.

“This raises the concern that the current increasing use of several toxic metals (including Pb) in electronic devices and the transition to low-carbon energy production may soon be reflected in elevated concentrations of these metals in humans, predominantly in those that are not fortunate enough to live in regulated and monitored regions,” the report warns.

“This also strengthens the case that increased use of metals should go hand in hand with augmented industrial hygiene, maximum metal recycling, and the consideration of environmental and toxicological aspects in the selection of metals for industrial use.”

In recent years, historical lead contamination in soil has been a major contention in cases such as the Exide Technologies’ Vernon site, where lead batteries were recycled.

The company has always denied the contamination was down to its operations, instead saying evidence had been found of lead in paint, aviation fuel emissions and other sources.

In July an alliance of lead and battery associations condemned informal lead battery recycling in response to a July 2020 Unicef and Pure Earth report that claimed a third of the world’s children were lead poisoning victims.

“The close relationship between lead production rates and lead concentrations in humans in the past suggests that without proper regulation we will continue to experience the damaging health impacts of toxic metals contamination,” said Yigal Erel, one of the authors of the report.

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