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13. One of
Professor Winder’s rather macabre examples of death by lead is that of
prostitutes in England and perhaps France in the nineteenth century, eating
lead as an abortifacient, for career-destroying pregnancies, all-the-while
thinking that the foetus took all the lead, but actually lead poisoning
themselves too - which had the side “benefit” that they gave themselves
anaemia – for white skin, considered desirable by the clients. Have we
learned from history? Not enough. The mistake of the twentieth
century, according to Professor Carl Shy, was adding lead to petrol.
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