Yes. Lead is toxic for humans, and even low levels can cause serious health problems. Children, women of childbearing age, and those who are breastfeeding could be at higher risk after eating food from cookware that leaches lead. Babies and kids are more susceptible to lead toxicity due to their smaller size, metabolism, and rapidly developing bodies, according to the FDA.
It's been more than six decades since New York City banned the use of lead paint in residential buildings-one of the first cities in the nation to do so, recognizing the health risks it posed, particularly for children. But the age of the city's housing stock means lead paint is still a presence: last year, 4,655 New York City children under the age of 6 tested positive for elevated lead levels in their blood, according to public data.
Our hominid ancestors faced a Pleistocene world full of dangers-and apparently one of those dangers was lead poisoning. Lead exposure sounds like a modern problem, at least if you define "modern" the way a paleoanthropologist might: a time that started a few thousand years ago with ancient Roman silver smelting and lead pipes. According to a recent study, however, lead is a much more ancient nemesis, one that predates not just the Romans but the existence of our genus Homo.
The most likely cause of an increase in childhood deaths is malaria, which kills more than 400,000 children a year and can cause seizures. But there was no report of the spiking fevers that characterize malaria. Lack of fever also made pneumonia, the most common cause of childhood death, less likely. The absence of diarrhea and dehydration ruled out cholera and other intestinal infections, the third most common cause of death.
