Things that Yoram knows: the clean world of our ancestors

Her father asks: Why in the past was the life expectancy of the sea low even though there was no air pollution, radiation, water pollution and chemicals?

Her father asks: Why in the past was the life expectancy of the sea low even though there was no air pollution, radiation, water pollution and chemicals?

It is indeed strange, our ancestors lived in a world without carcinogenic radiation, breathed fresh air, ate food without additives and lived in a world free of chemicals, how come they didn't live longer?

Nostalgia, it turns out, is misleading: we like to see a natural paradise in the past, but the historical truth is a bit more complex. Our ancestors absorbed a lot of radioactive radiation, breathed polluted air and were exposed to chemicals far worse than those we are warned about in the news today.

Let's take a little tour of the natural and clean pre-technological world and examine the myth closely.

Radiation: There have been worse things than cellular antennas

Although we are aware of radiation only in the last decades and the radiation that worries us is mainly man-made, the main source of carcinogenic radiation is still mother nature. The earth's crust contains quite a lot of radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium that decay slowly while releasing the dangerous gas radon. Our ancestors who lived in caves or basements were sometimes exposed to much higher levels of radiation than nuclear reactor workers or x-ray technicians are exposed to today.

In the Middle Ages, mine thicknesses in certain areas were known for their short lifespans that resulted from a disease then called "Miners' Disease", today that disease is simply called lung cancer and the cause of it was exposure to radon.

The use of uranium also predates the nuclear industry by a long time: natural uranium oxide (pitchblende) was used to produce colored glass and to glaze pottery. Glass containing uranium was very popular in the Victorian period due to it being luminous (emitting light when exposed to ultraviolet radiation). Magnificently designed and highly radioactive dinnerware and kitchen utensils were popular in the 19th century.

Toxic chemicals: not a new invention

The ancients knew how to produce much less poison than us, but what they knew how to prepare they spread very generously. Indeed, the abundance of chemicals available today allows environmentally friendly options that were not possible in the past.

Lead has been one of the most popular materials from the dawn of human history until very close to the present day.

The most common use of this toxic metal was in water piping. Lead is an ideal material for plumbing: an easy to process metal that does not rust, easy to weld and solder and flexible enough not to crack from freezing water inside. The word for plumber in European languages ​​such as plumber in English and Plombier in French originates from the Latin word plumbum meaning lead. Lead poisoning with its characteristic signs: stomach aches, emaciation, nerve diseases that reach paralysis and death was considered a professional risk for plumbers (as well as printing and painting workers) but also harmed those who consumed the water from the lead pipes.

Another use that exposed our ancestors to lead was the paints: the basis for the most common white paint from ancient times to the middle of the twentieth century was carbonated lead. Prof. Klugai (from the Technion) published in 1960 an introductory book in Hebrew to the chemistry of metals. To demonstrate how much our concepts of environmental pollution have changed in the blink of an eye of less than 60 years, here is a section of the text dealing with the production of white paint from lead.

"Lead present in the air forms with oxygen lead hydroxide and the latter later turns into basic lead carbonate known in the market as "white lead". This is a good, well-known white color from ancient times; It is prepared by the reaction of carbon dioxide on lead in a vinegar stand... this process has been known for hundreds of years under the name of the Dutch process...This process is slow but makes good merchandise is very...the lead colors coat wood and metal surfaces beautifully and are therefore preferred over other colors...""
It's hard not to shudder when you remember that the effect of this "very good product" became clear when the cause of thousands of cases of mental retardation in children (mainly in slums) who were exposed to paint chips from furniture and toys was discovered.

Lead was not the only toxic chemical that gained popularity: mothers in the Roman period wanted to sleep at night just like their modern sisters and the children of nature in the past were relieved of the pain of teething with mercury (a little more problematic for the child's health than "bis-phenol A" that leaks or not from bottles). Mercury fell from its greatness when the Greek physician Galen (XNUMXst century AD) insisted on its toxicity. Unfortunately, in the XNUMXth century, the renowned Muslim physician Al-Razi (author of the first book in history on pediatrics) gave renewed kosher to mercury as a laxative. A monkey that was fed metal showed no signs of poisoning and al-Razi's conclusion was that mercury is harmless. This is, perhaps, the first example of a medical inference being wrong following an experiment in the BAH (it is likely, indeed, that Al-Razi's monkey was not harmed: the main damage from mercury does not appear immediately but as cumulative nerve damage). Other doctors followed al-Razi and in the Middle Ages mercury was used to prepare preparations against lice and to alleviate skin inflammations and infections.

Those who were particularly affected by mercury for centuries were the hatters. The common material for hats was "felt": a non-woven fabric produced from the compression of wool or fur fibers used, for example, to cover billiard tables. The felt for hats is made from rabbit fur in a process called carroting (possible translation: "cutting"). The name, of course, is misleading: the process did not consume carrots or other vegetables but included washing with a solution of mercury nitrate which is orange in color. This treatment is required to separate the fur from the skin and attach the fibers smoothly. After the "cutting" the felt was shaped into tall cones and shrunk by boiling in water. Hatters were therefore exposed to a heavy dose of mercury vapor when they stirred the boilers in which the mercury-soaked felt was cooked. Mental illnesses (caused by the binding of mercury to the nerve cells in the brain) were considered a characteristic hallmark of the owners of this art. The Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland" is a victim of chemical poisoning of an ancient technology from the end times of the natural Genesis world. The high-mercury "carrot water" from the process was discharged like the rest of the wastewater at that time into rivers and lakes (traces of mercury can be identified in these water bodies to this day) A swim in such a river was probably as refreshing as a dip in our Kishon River.

The cosmetics of our natural verifications

We have all received the threatening emails warning us of the dangers of SLS in shampoo, aluminum in deodorant and other scary products that the chemical industry puts us through, and the obvious question, of course, is who needs these chemicals? Were the natural cosmetics and care products of the past not good?

Well they were, apparently, pretty bad. The replacement for non-soap and today's shampoo was a soap made by applying a strong base (caustic soda) to oil fat. Since it is impossible to maintain an exact ratio between the base and the oil at home, the soap used to be "aggressive" towards the skin (in the case of excess base) or greasy (excess fat). The natural soap will dry the skin because it effectively removes the skin's natural oil. Making soap at home was also dangerous: caustic soda creates a burn on the skin and its impact on the eyes can cause blindness.

The make-up preparations included dyeing eyebrows and eyelashes with dark coloring materials contributed by Mother Earth: sulphide lead (galena) or stivnite: a compound of the poisonous metal antimony called by the biblical name "Poch" or "Kahal". Copper salts were used for blue and greenish tones. Eye make-up has been considered for many generations to be a standard care that a woman should not appear without. When King Ahab's wife Isabel prepares to meet Jehu, who killed her husband, he makes sure to keep her appearance "And Jehu came, Israel; And Jezebel heard it, and put it in her eyes, and tilted her head, and looked out the window" (Kings XNUMX, chapter XNUMX).

All these metals were absorbed through contact with the conjunctiva (the mucous tissue around the eyeball) or through the skin into the bloodstream

And what about air quality? At least the air pollution with smoke and particles was spared from our ancestors?

So it's not. The use of fire for heating and lighting in enclosed spaces exposed the occupants to much more serious pollution than a modern city dweller is exposed to. Smoke that originates from the imperfect burning of oil or charcoal may contain a variety of carcinogenic and harmful substances belonging to the family ofpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons  Polycyclic aromatic compounds. These compounds shortened the lives of the cheerful chimney sweeps (in "Mary Poppins" they dance on the roofs, but the reality was much less happy and much more sinister) and also of the homeowners who heated with natural fireplaces or lit their rooms with oil lanterns. The condition of the poor who often warmed themselves by open fires without proper ventilation was much worse. Another type of pollution that harms the lungs are suspended solid particles (such as those inhaled by teachers who write with chalk on the blackboard): our ancestors who breathed in a house with a lot of smoky particles also engaged in a variety of dust-generating activities during the day such as plowing, harvesting, quarrying and chipping, and lung diseases such as silicosis: damage In the respiratory tract, inhalation of micron-sized silica particles was much more common than it is today.

Food additives: Afraid of aspartates? try litharge

Who among us has not received threatening messages about the danger of artificial sweeteners such as the asparts in Diet Coke? Have we surpassed our ancestors at least in the area of ​​dubious food additives?

So it's not. When metallic lead is heated in air, yellowish-red crystals form on it: this is lead monoxide or "litharge". Although the ancients did not worry about diet, they soon discovered that this powder reacts with vinegar (a contradictory reaction in the language of chemists) and a substance called "sugar of lead" (lead acetate) is obtained which has a sweet taste. The Romans used to boil grape juice in lead vessels until they obtained a viscous and sweet liquid called Sapa, which contained about a gram of "sugar of lead" per liter. This syrup was used as a sweetener in many recipes as well as a wine preservative. Before the invention of today's sealed glass bottles, the wine was exposed to acidification: bacteria turned the alcohol in the presence of oxygen from the air into acid (wine vinegar), the monooxide of lead preserved the wine both by neutralizing the vinegar that had already formed in it and by killing the bacteria that, like beni Man is poisoned by heavy metals. The need to preserve wine (a staple food throughout long historical periods) was so strong that even when the toxicity of the substance became clear in the 18th century, only the application of the death penalty to wine sweeteners stopped the use of litharge.

Many historians attribute the decline of the Roman aristocracy to the heavy neurological damage caused by exposure to lead. It is possible that the death of Emperors Cainero, Caligula and Commodus was the result of lead-saturated sweets and wine. Compared to today: even if the warners are right and aspartame is not good for our health, no empire has yet collapsed because of Diet Coke.

As strange as this may sound, a non-smoker in the developed world of the beginning of the 21st century is exposed to toxins and radiation much less than his ancestors, add to this the safety from most of the communicable diseases that brought down many people in the past and our nutritional security and the golden age of the past seems much less shiny.

Did an interesting, intriguing, strange, delusional or funny question occur to you? sent to  ysorek@gmail.com

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