As another indicator that those living in poor neighborhoods are more vulnerable to illness (even though it can be overcome with a carefully-planned healthy diet), it’s now become a major issue that exposure to lead in paint used in old apartment buildings can cause some serious developmental problems in children. How ironic then that while lead exposure is said to be common with the poor via 30-year-old paint and in antiquated water pipes, wealthy families from Europe and America may have been affected by lead via the use of lead put in crystal. This was specific in decanters that were designed with lead and used to store various types of wine and whisky. It didn’t just top there, either, what with the use of lead for drinking glasses and even dishes the wealthy would eat their meals on.
While this affected many millionaires who weren’t necessarily household names, the royals in the U.K. and other countries were also using lead crystal as part of their dining utensils. And that lead crystal was passed on down to each generation–hence many royal figures probably getting lead into their system in some capacity. This might even include royals still living today, including members of the Windsors. No, they probably aren’t about to get rid of that expensive lead crystal when it seems to have become the official dining utensils of the royal family world. Perhaps it’s because it’s too beautiful to look at and sparkles plenty.
So is this a key element in diagnosing the idiosyncratic behavior of some of the royals that don’t need mentioning? We can’t really prove that any royal family is still drinking from or eating off of lead crystal, but there isn’t any doubt that it was still being used on up to the 20th century.
According to studies done already in the early 1990’s by Columbia University (see source link), alcohol in a lead decanter could easily get lead mixed into the alcohol, enough to cause some minor signs of lead poisoning in a person–though probably mistaken at times as a simple stomach ache, nausea or headache. Little did many who consumed the lead regularly realize that they were harming their neurological health overall. Other studies even show a direct link to gout as the result of getting lead poisoning from the decanters and eating off of or drinking out of lead crystal.
Now with the reports that lead poisoning can also lead to lower I.Q., we may be looking at one of the key characteristics in what might have caused some famous royals to exhibit strange behavior in the past. You could say the same thing with many a millionaire living in Europe or America in the last 200 years who also used lead crystal for everything. Because lead poisoning can disrupt the brain, it’s been suggested that lead poisoning was a possible indirect reason for King George III’s insanity during his reign in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. The King supposedly had Porphyria, which is the disruption of an important enzyme that helps the neurological system. Though lead poisoning is almost identical in symptoms to Porphyria and most scientists say that King George III couldn’t have had direct lead poisoning because he supposedly wasn’t anemic.
When you consider that other members of the British royals had the same symptoms before and after the reign of King George III, it seems suspect that they all didn’t just suffer from some form of lead poisoning from using lead crystal in their meals. Somehow the more current generation of the royals didn’t suffer from the same madness, despite lead poisoning sometimes manifesting itself in subtle ways through the brain and not necessarily causing direct madness. While Princes Harry and William seem quite intelligent, there isn’t any proof that Charles or his father, Philip, are exactly brilliant. And they probably grew up eating off lead crystal in the palace.
But if the British royals (or any other royal family in Europe) are still using lead crystal, is there a chance some of the younger royals will end up as delinquents as new studies are suggesting?
Lead exposure early can lead to criminal behavior...
A recent report from the University of Cincinnati is saying now that lead exposure as a young child can bring a person’s blood lead levels up to toxic levels and create odd neurological or attention deficit behavior patterns in the person–leading to possible crime-related acts. This implies that lead may be one of the leading causes of crime and lowering I.Q.’s in the world…or at least in the world of the poor. If proven true, this could give a lot of answers to what causes people to live a life of crime and why people who get that way are sometimes (yes, we should stress sometimes) from poorer neighborhoods.
Exposure to lead seems so archaic in the way people should be living, yet it’s still being discovered in older buildings where lead was used in the paint on the building’s walls. Fortunately, the U.S. Government is going to do something about this in 2010 as part of renovation plans for older buildings in poor neighborhoods. This will finally eradicate the potential of a new generation getting exposed to lead when it was outlawed from being used in paint more than twenty years ago. Even so, lead poisoning from the past never goes away in those already exposed.
____
If the government finally gets average citizens away from lead, will that leave royal families the only ones left in the world getting exposed to lead if they’re still using lead crystal? As I mentioned earlier, there isn’t any proof they’ve stopped using lead crystal when eating or drinking. The traditions of the royals get passed on down the line for centuries and probably don’t change too much.
In the chance it’s still being used, any future odd behavior by the royals may end up being blamed on consumption of lead, just as it is now in America. In that regard, it’s probably small amounts of lead consumption since it’s unlikely anyone in the family pours a can of Coke in a lead crystal glass. Nevertheless, plenty of whiskey likely still exists in those lead decanters for the older kin…
Sources:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE3DB163FF93AA25751C0A967958260
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/28/AR2008052801484.html
