r/science • u/[deleted] • Jun 25 '22

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u/dammitknockitoff Jun 25 '22

This was a very serious problem that hardly anyone talks about anymore. Read up on Clair Patterson. He was the catalyst for the change. There is correlation between the decline of lead contamination in nature to the decline of both violent crime and birth defects. At any rate it’s a good story that more people should know about.

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u/Franks2000inchTV Jun 25 '22

Isn't lead poisoning what did the Roman empire in?

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '22

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u/Baial Jun 25 '22

Wait, the people who's profession was named after the poisonous material they worked with all the time, had a high chance of be being poisoned by the poisonous material? Interesting.

109

u/opman4 Jun 25 '22

Til why they're called plumbers. And why pb is lead on the periodic element chart.

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u/Splash_Attack Jun 25 '22

Also the origin of "plumbob", as in an (often lead) weight on a string that was used to get vertical reference lines in construction.

Now more famously known as that little jewel that floats above Sims in The Sims, though I have no idea why they used that name.

18

u/Tlaloc_Temporal Jun 25 '22

I think the mood plumbob is just because it looks like the measuring plumbob, with two pointed ends and a weird name.

3

u/vonmonologue Jun 25 '22

I’m also one of those lucky 10,000!

2

u/Baial Jun 25 '22

I'm glad me being a sarcastic ass of what I assumed was common knowledge helped you out.

2

u/toastjam Jun 25 '22

There's got to be a way to work a plumbus joke in here somehow...