Silver fueled the rise of the Roman Empire. But the ancient process of mining and extracting silver was also making the air thick with lead, scientists found.

Arctic ice cores uncover how Roman lead pollution led to widespread IQ declines over 2,000 years ago, revealing impacts on ...

Atmospheric lead pollution likely caused cognitive decline among citizens of the Roman Empire, according to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new research adds context to a long-standing debate about the role lead pollution and poisoning may have played in the collapse of the Roman Empire. Some historians have argued that Roman ...

Exposure to lead from mining probably lowered I.Q. levels in the empire, research has found. It might be the world’s first ...

Scientists are exploring the role of lead pollution in the decline of the Roman Empire, proposing that chronic lead exposure ...

"A 2 to 3 points lower IQ doesn't sound like much, but when you apply that to the entire European population, it's quite a lot." ...

A child born within the Roman Empire at this time would have roughly three times as much lead in their blood on average as kids in the US today, researchers estimate. Using modern evidence of lead ...

Extensive silver mining may have exposed ancient Romans to high levels of lead pollution in the air ... of atmospheric lead at the Roman Empire’s height that were about threefold what they ...

Atmospheric lead pollution likely caused cognitive decline among citizens of the Roman Empire, according to research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.