- In the 16th century, the popularity of pale skin lead women to use lead-based pale makeup, with accompanying lead poisoning and skin damage (http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html).
- In Roman times, lead was ubiquitous. Of course, lead was used for the plumbing which carried the water supply. But just in case that wasn't enough, they would boil juice in lead pots to create "sugar of lead", which was used as a sweetener in cooking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate).
- Even in hunter-gatherer times, all kinds of naturally occurring substances would have been toxic. Poisonous plants were ubiquitous, as were poisonous substances in the water (drunk straight from the river or pond, remember). "Clostridia bacteria, for example, live in the soil but infect humans in a variety of nasty ways. These germs will grow on food, leaving the toxins that cause botulism".
Is there any other place or time that would be less bad? Going back through history:
- In the 20th century, factories were far dirtier than today; the gasoline was still full of lead; London had its infamous killer smogs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog); rivers routinely caught on fire from industrial waste (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River); etc.
- In the 19th century, all kinds of common products (especially medicines) were hideously toxic. Mercury was used to make hats, so people became "mad as a hatter" from heavy metal poisoning. Famous artists painted with arsenic paint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_green). Abraham Lincoln's doctors gave him mercury poisoning (http://www3.uah.es/farmamol/The%20Pharmaceutical%20Century/C...). There's a history book called "The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, & Play" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Arsenic-Century-Victorian-Poisoned...).
- In the 16th century, the popularity of pale skin lead women to use lead-based pale makeup, with accompanying lead poisoning and skin damage (http://www.elizabethancostume.net/makeup.html).
- In Roman times, lead was ubiquitous. Of course, lead was used for the plumbing which carried the water supply. But just in case that wasn't enough, they would boil juice in lead pots to create "sugar of lead", which was used as a sweetener in cooking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II)_acetate).
- Even in hunter-gatherer times, all kinds of naturally occurring substances would have been toxic. Poisonous plants were ubiquitous, as were poisonous substances in the water (drunk straight from the river or pond, remember). "Clostridia bacteria, for example, live in the soil but infect humans in a variety of nasty ways. These germs will grow on food, leaving the toxins that cause botulism".