I am reminded of how ancient Rome relied on lead for so much - plumbing, glassware, etc. (The word "plumber" comes from the Latin word for lead.) There is a lot of suspicion that many of the more insane Roman emperors got that way because of lead poisoning. One can ponder if the spiritual corruption was a result of the weakening of their minds, or if the heavy reliance on lead was the physical product of the spiritual corruption. As I wrote this, I wondered if any of them even suspected the dangers of lead?
According to this article (linked here), the answer is yes.
According to this, Romans knew about the dangers of lead ... and used it anyway. Not only that, but it becomes obvious that we kept ignoring the warning signs even to the modern day. We have continued to use lead in paint and fuel and other products right up until very recently, and still use them here and there. The town I once lived in had so much lead in soil and paint, that it was very obviously unsafe to grow root crops or let small kids roam inside old houses freely.
I don't know the role of toxic metals in God's plans for Earth. I wish that we didn't use so many of them in the manufacture of so many things, from computer parts to fluorescent light bulbs to batteries and so on. I will be relieved when someday we no longer use those metals, and hopefully just let them stay asleep in the Earth.
In the meantime, I hope for the day when the need to make a profit no longer trumps the need to keep the innocent safe from unnecesssary harm.
P.S. A friend of mine and I both find aluminum to "feel" bad. Neither of us likes its feel. We have wondered whether future generations will discover something about aluminum that will make them shake their heads at us? In the meantime, though, there is no disputing that it is a very convenient and useful metal - for now. The Romans thought the same thing about lead.
Spirituality Learned the Hard Way