Media report on Harvard, UMaine study on human-made lead air pollution
The Guardian, Smithsonian, Atlas Obscura, Daily Mail, UPI, Heraldo, Energy and Environment News, Gizmodo in Australia and Clean Malaysia reported on a new analysis of ice core data and historical records that shows human-made lead air pollution has been elevated for approximately the last 2,000 years, except for a four-year period during a devastating pandemic in Europe that halted lead mining. Scientists from Harvard University and the University of Maine examined an ice core taken from the Alps to see how atmospheric lead pollution changed over time, Atlas Obscura reported. In 2,000 years they noticed just one large drop in lead levels — in the middle of the 14th century, when the Black Death swept through Europe. At that time, the lead concentration in the atmosphere basically dropped to zero, which should perhaps be considered the new “natural” and “safe” level of lead contamination in the air, the article states. The researchers observed two other notable dips in lead. One came around 1460, corresponding to another epidemic. The other began in the 1970s, as a result of regulations banning lead in gasoline, among other policy changes, according to the article. American Geophysical Union also issued a news release on the study.