Well mart, you know, there is a theory that ingestion of lead was one of the leading causes of the fall of the roman empire. Matter of fact, plumber is latin for...."worker of lead", 2 thousand year old profession. So, 2,000 years later plumbers are still working with it a bit but no where near the old days.
The latest federal mandate on lead relates to brass fittings which, until 2011 had trace amounts of lead. Now it does not and that 1 little change has caused the prices of brass fittings to double, naturally, plumbers are switching to stainless steel fittings as a result.