A study analyzing Arctic ice cores reveals that lead pollution during the Roman Empire's height contributed to an estimated 2-3 point IQ decline across Europe.

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 elites and emperors who purportedly displayed odd,

A new study turned to Arctic ice core records between 500 BCE through 600 CE to find a link between lead pollution and widespread health decline in the Ancient Roman Empire, which most likely lowered the IQs of 80 million people.

Lead pollution might sound like a modern problem, but people were subjected to significant levels during antiquity, too.

Did lead poisoning contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? It’s a question historians have long debated, since the Romans sweetened their wine with lead acetate and sipped tap water that flowed through lead pipes.

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. Researchers analyzed ice core records for an approximately thousand-year period corresponding roughly with the period from the Roman Republic through the decline of the empire,

Lead records from Arctic glaciers indicate that people all over Europe would have been affected by pollution from metal smelting during the Roman era