Which risk increased when Mesopotamian bronze sickle blades replaced flint tools in barley harvesting around 3000 BCE?

💡 Explanation

When copper was smelted to make bronze, trace arsenic present in the ore ended up in the alloy, increasing arsenic toxicity from alloy impurities, due to handling and potential ingestion during blade production and use. Therefore, arsenic toxicity results, rather than yield reduction, contamination, or fires which are related to harvesting issues, tools and crop combination scenarios respectively.

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