Pompeii residents were screwed before the volcanic eruption

Society & Culture[1] Society & Culture[1]Archaeology [2]Health [3]Denmark [4]Videnskab.dk [5] A water pipe from Pompeii had alarmingly high levels of toxic chemicals. Vomiting, diarrhoea, perhaps death. These could have been the consequences of drinking water from the ancient Roman town of Pompeii. A new study shows that water pipes from the city contained high levels of the poisonous metal antimony. “It was very bad for your health to drink the water in Pompeii,” says co-author Kaare Lund Rasmussen, who is a chemistry lecturer at the University of Southern Denmark. The results are published in the scientific journal, Toxicology Letters [6].