Richard: the Elizabethans were well practised too and, with the advantage of an additional century of technological development, were able to do so on an industrial scale. Remember DDT? Remember the Camelford incident which is well described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelford_water_pollution_incident where not only were people left with aluminium deposits in their brain, lead from piping was also leached into drinking water? How about tetraethyl lead added to petrol?
Incidentally, and speaking as an ex-chemist, the dangers of Pb poisoning are almost universally misunderstood. Organic lead compounds, such as PbEt_4_ are really, really nasty. A few milligrams will kill you and quite rapidly too. Soluble inorganic lead compounds do pretty nasty things to the CNS. Insoluble lead compounds are arguably helpful — a coating of lead sulphate or carbonate on the inside of lead water pipes which is naturally produced in hard water districts prevents soluble lead compounds leaching out. Metallic lead is virtually harmless, unless injected en masse into the body at high velocity. Many people live for decades with several grams of Pb inside them, especially where the location of the bullet makes surgery to remove it a markedly higher risk than to just let it be.
I’m sure that you as another ex-chemist are well aware of the content of the previous paragraph.
Paul