I was curious about that. And I’m sure they retrofitted used radiators full of good gunk and chemicals also.
Didn’t the Romans accidentally add lead to their wine using lead vessels? Or was that a myth? I read this many times but was never sure.
Someone saddled on the idea that lead plumbing caused the fall of Rome, and some people just cling like a dingleberry to the whole lead poisoning idea. There aren't a lot of human remains from the Roman Empire that have been known about for more than a few decades (most of them come from Herculaneum) and I very much doubt that anyone has looked for possible lead poisoning. It's a given that NO evidence for lead poisoning was obtained prior to the emergence of the notion itself.