This video has a nice explanation. Essentially it was money. They knew it was toxic. A large number of scientists petitioned against it being used. But certain companies knew they could make money so they did it anyway

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He said before it was discovered to be toxic. Take your agenda elsewhere.

Lead was used by Romans because it was available and easy to work with. It was added to many of our products AFTER it was already known to be dangerous in order to make some people richer. Not an agenda. A fact.

It's been known to be toxic for literally thousands of years.

Lead just makes paint better -- dries faster, keeps looking good longer, etc. Lead added to gasoline is an inexpensive way to increase the octane, allowing for higher compression.

It’s been known to be toxic for millennia. Take your ignorance elsewhere.

Because profit above human life is not an agenda.

Lol the anti-lead agenda?

You missed that boat like decades ago man. Hahaha. Where do you people come from??

this is factually wrong.

Lead has been known to be toxic basically since discovery. we just didnt make use of it in the way we did in the last 100 years or so(because it was pushed for despite knowing its dangers)

but before that LEad had its uses as a dense and malleable metal

yOuR aGeNdA

The anti-capitalism agenda.

So, explain how explain a historical fact about industry knowing lead is toxic and using it anyways is anti-capitalist?

Or, is it true in your mind that saying "nicotine is addictive" is an anti-capitalist statement, too? Or that cigarettes cause cancer? Or that there are documents proving that the oil industry knew about climate change and did nothing?

Is it possible that these things be true, and also the people say them aren't anti-capitalist? Is pointing out a lack of accountability "anti" at all?

Lead piping is malleable and easy to bend. Before plastics were invented, lead was a great way to connect two pieces of pipe that were off by a slight amount.

Thomas Midgley Jr. not only discovered the use of PB in gasoline to prevent misfiring cylinders by controlling the pressure, he also invented Freon, which went on to destroy some areas of the ozone layer.

Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley "had more adverse impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history",[27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.

You forgot to mention that it makes paint taste better.

As other comments have stated the issue is with the question not my answer. It's not possible to answer in the way it was asked. There wasn't really a before. Lead comes from the decay of uranium. Hippocrates know about its dangers somewhere around 300 BC, Nikander described results of lead poisoning in 250 BC. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think OP was asking why they made lead necklaces in Anatolia around 6000 years ago. Although it was probably the last time people did use lead without knowing it was toxic.

If you ain’t first, yer last