By all means, yes. Although 'Minamata diesease' was caused by chronic poisoning with organic mercury compounds (methylmercury and dimethylmercury) that are relatively new (although it is possible for inorganic mercury to methylate in the environment due to activity of some microorganisms), and 'Ital-Itai disease' is a chronic poisoning with cadmium that was not produced in any large quantities prior to 20th century, exposure to heavy metals and resulting diseases were definitely not unheard of since Antiquity. Two most common hazards would have been mercury and lead.

Mercury, although known and used to some extent since Ancient times, became a crucial resource in mid-16th century when Bartolome de Medina developed new technique of silver amalgamation and Lope de Saavedra Barba developed the aludel furnaces that lowered the cost of silver processing and allowed for more efficient usage of poor silver deposits. This meant that the mercury production in Almadén mines became more important and more intense than ever, with the new silver deposits discovered in New Spain (modern Mexico) fueling the demand for large quantities of raw mercury. Lead, on the other hand, has been a very common material since the Antiquity thanks to its high malleability and relatively low melting point.

The most commonly described symptoms, consistent with the modern clinical image of chronic mercury poisoning included profuse salivation, tremor, irregular heartbeat, oropharyngeal syndrome (changed voice, trouble with swallowing, significant irritation of throat) and erethism (neuropsychological changes of behaviour that might include depression, apathy, irritability, insomnia and fatigue but also bouts of anger and paranoidal tendencies).

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Lead mining and smelting

Pliny the Elder in Historia Naturalis (XXXIV, 49-50) noticed that the people living in the vicinity of the lead mine or working there tend to have visible problems with breathing, while the women are more often affected by miscarriages. Similarly, Vitruvius in his De Architectura (8.3.5) says that drinking water from places where metals are excavated lead to the minerals and metals to deposit in sinews and nerves, leading to cramps or gout. This description, although completely missing the real etiology of the problems, might be interpreted as observed neurological complications leading to motoric impairment, one of the common symptoms of heavy metals poisoning, with a gout being also a possible outcome of a chronic poisoning, especially with lead (so-called 'Saturnine gout' caused by kidney damage that results in a increased uric acid production and deposition).

The scale of production was immense, and even if we account for the estimates varying by an order of magnitude (Wooley states that in the 1st and 2nd century CE, annual consumption of lead in the Empire amounted to roughly 80,000 tons, Needleman suggests it was short of 200,000 tons, while Nriagu give a low estimate of 14,500 tons) we're still speaking of an industrial scale of excavation even for modern standards. On the other hand, with the miners often being slaves and prisoners, apparently little care was paid to the occupational hazards in the lead mines and smelters.

In addition to the industrial lead production, lead poisoning could have occurred in people frequently consuming wine sweetened by defrutum or an evaporated grape juice usually prepared in lead or lead-lined vessels. I have summarily addressed that topic in this thread, so there is no need to repeat it here. It is worth noting that Pliny the Elder in Historia Naturalis notices that people drinking too much sweet wine may develop tingling sensations and shaking of the extremities.

Mercury production

When speaking of the mercury poisoning, one cannot but bring forth the case of the Idrija mine in what is now Slovenia. The mercury deposits were accidentally discovered there in 1490 and the prospectors quickly realized that the deposits of mercury are very large, what quickly caused the Idrija mine to become one of biggest supplier of pure mercury in the contemporary world. And it is almost certain that the adverse influence of mercury mining became apparent very quickly, as the first comprehensive description of this condition, then called 'mercurialism' has been made by Teophrastus von Hohenheim, more commonly known as Paracelsus, who included it in his book Von der Bergsucht und anderen Krankheiten published in 1527, noting that people working in the cinnabar mines and smelters often developed tremor, salivation, ulcers and general weakness. These early observations were not ignored, although it did not do much good for the miners. Nonetheless, mining administrators officially shortened the shift length of the miners from eight to six hours in 1665, what is an interesting case of the early modern occupational health and safety regulations. This, however, was still too little to prevent chronic poisoning that would have sooner or later afflicted anyone working in the mine or smelters on a daily basis. Similar approach has also been shared by Bernardino Ramazzini, Paduan physician who focused on the adverse condition of work and in his book De morbis artificum diatriba published in 1700 he described afflictions common among the representatives of 52 occupations. His book is possibly the first so extensive work on what we would call today an occupational medicine.

Many famous physicians of the era were posted to mine as a resident doctor, including Johannes Scopoli, Balthasar Hacquet and Ludvik Gerbec. Scopoli, appointed in 1754, was the first official doctor of the facility and like aforementioned Paracelsus, in his 1761 book De Hydrargyro Idriensi Tentamina he described in detail various symptoms of 'mercurialism' quite common among the miners, their families and people living in the vicinity. In addition, he noticed that the consumption of alcohol seems to exacerbate symptoms, what has been corroborated by later research. Ludvik Gerbec, who spent on site more than 40 years after getting his assignment in 1833 expanded Scopoli's work and described immediate and prolonged effects of the fire that happened in the meantime, causing more than 900 cases of acute poisoning. According to Scopoli and Gerbec, poisoning rate was very high as they noticed that 40-50% of the miners displayed serious symptoms of 'mercurialism'.

The danger posed by the mine affected not only the miners but also people in the vicinity. The mercury deposits were also accompanied by oil and shale gas pockets that contributed to a constant fire hazard. This eventually led to a significant fire that broke out on 15th March 1803 that has been put out by flooding the affected part with the water that was later pumped out what was followed by the reclamation of the pit. This affected the local environment and people in two ways. First, the exhaust gases from the mine shaft dispersed mercury vapours throughout the area, strongly affecting miners living in the immediate vicinity of the mine in addition to any exposure they received during normal work and extinguishing of the fire. In addition, the water diverted from the Idrijca river to fight the fire was pumped back directly to river, leading to a death of all fish and other aquatic animals present there and affecting health of people and livestock that used the water from the river for domestic purposes. Another fire occurred in 3rd November 1846 and was dealt with similarly, by closing the shafts and pumping water into the mine. Again, substantial number of acute 'mercurialism' has been reported after the rehabilitation of the mine, and the number of births in 1847 significantly decreased in comparison with the years preceding the incident.