Poisonings went hand in hand with the drinking water in Pompeii

[Disir]

Romans poisoned themselves

For many years, archaeologists have believed that the Romans' water pipes were problematic when it came to public health. After all, they were made of lead: a heavy metal that accumulates in the body and eventually shows up as damage to the nervous system and organs. Lead is also very harmful to children. So there has been a long-lived thesis that the Romans poisoned themselves to a point of ruin through their drinking water.

- However, this thesis is not always tenable. A lead pipe gets calcified rather quickly, thereby preventing the lead from getting into the drinking water. In other words, there were only short periods when the drinking water was poisoned by lead: for example, when the pipes were laid or when they were repaired: assuming, of course, that there was lime in the water, which there usually was, says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

Instead, he believes that the Romans' drinking water may have been poisoned by the chemical element, antimony, which was found mixed with the lead.

Advanced equipment at SDU

Unlike lead, antimony is acutely toxic. In other words, you react quickly after drinking poisoned water. The element is particularly irritating to the bowels, and the reactions are excessive vomiting and diarrhoea that can lead to dehydration. In severe cases it can also affect the liver and kidneys and, in the worst-case scenario, can cause cardiac arrest.
Poisonings went hand in hand with the drinking water in Pompeii

The antimony puts a bit of a twist in it.

 

[American Horse]

I'd like to see some proof that the inhabitants of Pompeii actually experienced poisoning. Personally I think this may be a bit of an assumption leading to a popular explanation. The Pompeans almost exclusively drank wine (not trusting the municipal water to be pure) using water from the water delivery system was used mainly for bathing and one assumes bathing.

Their slaves would've been most at peril, but even they more commonly drank wine. Wiine too was made from water, probably drawn from cisterns.

We're led to believe that ancient Romans (including citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum) had short lives but the truth is that if you lived to adulthood you would've lived a life comparable in length to today in all but the most long lived countries. Some evidence of this is to search the date of birth and date of death of some prominent Roman citizens.

Some revealing information on the subject can be found HERE->Pompeii skeletons reveal secrets of Roman family life - BBC News

 

[whitehall]

Yeah but the drinking water didn't kill them. The volcano did.

 

[Muhammed]

The Romans used lead to sweeten their wine. That's a hell of a lot worse than drinking water that went through a few lead pipes.

 

[IsaacNewton]

For Pompeii they died of pyroclastic flow, no oxygen, burning alive, and other things associated with a volcano falling on your city. They likely had lead in their water as did any town that used lead pipes but there hasn't been a lot in literature to suggest this was a major reason for the fall of the Roman Empire.

 

[Disir]

Well, you were considered an alcoholic if you drank wine as wine. It was actually diluted with more water. Boring. Even so, there would only a few times there would be lead exposure through the pipes with the lime. It isn't going to take too long for somebody to figure out the water was poisoned. They weren't idiots. I wonder if it could explain smaller outbreaks of illness. Like what we would say with the flu AND if those outbreaks occurred at the same time there was some kind of rumbling. AND if one might see so and so having become ill in any letters. Just a casual mention with symptoms.

The Roman Empire did not fall; it shifted. I am not one that believes in they poisoned themselves to ruin.