It is not known when people first recognized that lead is dangerous, although warnings against lead poisoning exist among early Greek medical writings. The danger of environmental lead, recognized for centuries, has not disappeared. Cause Lead poisoning occurs when many lead compounds are eaten or drunk, applied to the skin , or breathed. Metallic lead is not poisonous to the touch but it is dangerous when eaten or breathed. Acute lead poisoning was first noticed among miners and people who processed lead ores, but today the main concern comes from exposure to low levels of lead, which lowers measurable intelligence in children.
Lead compounds have many virtues and, despite the danger, are still in use.
Although modern paints for use in places that might cause lead poisoning are manufactured without lead, paint that contains high levels of lead coats interior as well as exterior walls in older buildings throughout the industrialized world. The main danger is that old paint often falls off walls in small pieces. Children find that these paint flakes are somewhat sweet and eat the chips, causing lead poisoning. Although dishes have come a long way from the lead jars of the Romans and the lead-alloyed pewter plates of the American colonists, some forms of ceramics continue to use lead glazes and decorative paints or dyes based on lead. The ceramics in question are primarily the shiny forms, called porcelains or enamels.