Medieval pollution, still with us

Scientists have tracked down the source of high levels of heavy metal pollution at a site in southern France: medieval metallurgical workshops. Sandrine Baron, Jean Carignan, and Alain Ploquin of the Center for Petrographic and Geochemical Research in Nancy, France, report that the lead, antimony, arsenic, copper, and zinc residues left behind there more than 800 years ago still pose a potential health threat. . .

Mont-Lozère Massif, the site of medieval workshop remnants that they studied, is in the Cévennes National Park, where people fish, hunt, farm, and camp.

Posted by David on August 19, 2006 10:57 PM