Lead : the oldest enemy of human health

Because of its malleability, low melting point, availability in the earth's crust and certain properties of its derivatives (covering power of ceruse white, anti-knock properties of tetraethyl lead, for example), lead has been used by humans since prehistoric times, in everyday objects such as cosmetics, pipes, paints, ammunition, batteries, as a gasoline additive... The multiplicity of uses of lead by societies echoes a plurality of targets in the body: the trajectory of knowledge generation and management of this hazard, which has accompanied our societies for millennia, illustrates the emergence, from the historical concept of poison (understood as a substance harmful in "large doses", immediately and systematically), of the modern vision of causes in environmental health, having stochastic (non-systematic) effects in "small doses", which can be delayed in time, on pathologies with multiple causes.