[marcosdumay]

> I don't have hard data on this, but I think it's fair to say their generation's overall exposure to toxins was much greater.

Just another day my parents were annoyed remembering that the "big, bad government" banned a popular medicine from my grandfather's time. One that people used on cuts all the time.

Turns out the medicine was lead acetate.

[BenjiWiebe]

Are you sure it wasn't Mercurochrome you're thinking of? It's a mercury compound that was very commonly used to disinfect cuts and scrapes.

It was prepared from mercuric acetate and sodium dibromofluorescein.

Goulard's extract, containing lead subacetate, was used on cuts too, but from what I can tell it wasn't nearly as widespread/famous as Mercurochrome.

[marcosdumay]

No. Mercury acetate was banned way later (what makes sense because it wasn't the main ingredient on the finished product), that's probably why you know about it.

It was lead acetate, dissolved on water and a small bit of ethanol.