Polluting Celts

Here's another instance of environmental degradation in antiquity, reported in Nature:

Scientists have reconstructed the environmental history of a Celtic mining town by digging through a peat bog near Dijon in France in search of lead residues and pollen grains. . .

But the results also serve as a sobering reminder about how long pollution lasts. [Fabrice] Monna's team concludes that about 20% of the lead pollution in the peat today was introduced before the eleventh century, and about 50% before the eighteenth century. . .

"Today, the area is absolutely green, there is no industry there at all," Monna notes. Yet the fingerprint of human activity is still obvious in the peat bogs. Lead that was mined in the nineteenth century, for example, is still around at levels of about 80 micrograms per gram of peat. "That's quite a lot," says Monna.

The finding isn't particularly surprising to environmental chemists. Once lead is locked up in organic material such as peat, it tends to stay put rather than being washed away by water. But the study emphasizes that researchers should pay more attention to where pollution comes from, says Monna. In particular, he says, environmental surveys should consider the history of sites when looking at current pollution levels so that the impact of modern activities is not overestimated. . .

Lead pollution peaked in the first century BC, after a Celtic tribe settled the area to exploit the rich deposits of lead, silver and zinc in the surrounding hills, and once again in the nineteenth century at the height of the Industrial Revolution.

Posted by David on January 14, 2004 5:50 PM