Pliny traced the evils of iron to human misuse, not the metal’s nature

Evidence

For by the aid of iron we lay open the ground, we plant trees, we prepare our vineyard trees, and we force our vines each year to resume their youthful state, by cutting away their decayed branches. It is by the aid of iron that we construct houses, cleave rocks, and perform so many other useful offices of life. But it is with iron also that wars, murders, and robberies are effected, … not only hand to hand, but … by the aid of missiles and winged weapons, now launched from engines, now hurled by the human arm, and now furnished with feathery wings. Let us therefore acquit nature of a charge that here belongs to man himself. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 175