Lead poisoning can cause all types of health problems, including high blood pressure. It is a particular health hazard for women. It can cause early menopause and increase the risk of stillbirth and miscarriage.
And yet, lead used to be a common ingredient in skin-whitening makeup. The ancient Greeks and Romans put it in their cosmetics and white lead makeup, also known as ceruse, was fashionable between the 16th and 19th centuries in Europe.
Fiona McNeill is an expert in lead poisoning at McMaster University in Canada. But when she heard the story of the Countess of Coventry dying from her makeup, McNeill was sceptical.
"I've got this background in lead poisoning and I thought, this just can't be true," she tells us. While ingesting lead is toxic, McNeill was unconvinced that the lead in makeup would cross the skin in sufficient quantities to kill somebody.
McNeill and her colleagues decided to investigate. They found various centuries-old recipes for white lead makeup, recreated them in the lab, and then tested them on pig skin to find out.
And along the way, they've found what the makeup really looked like. "It's always depicted in the movies and on TV as this white mask, this ridiculous-looking face. When we started making it in the lab, it doesn't look like that at all," she explains.
(This is a PTI story syndicated via The Conversation)
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Can make-up really kill you? Scientist recreates medieval skin-whitening creams with lead to find answers - Economic Times
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