Remember when we studied history in high school, how we chuckled when we learned that court ladies in Elizabethan England used lead-based paint as makeup to get a flawless white complexion, and the men drank wine from vessels made of lead?  How ignorant those people were. No wonder they rarely lived past the age of 50. (Queen Elizabeth was a remarkable exception.) 

Over the centuries science has made great advances. We have learned that lead is a poison. We have passed laws restricting the use of lead in consumer products.  We don’t use lead nearly as much any more.  Now we use depleted uranium.