The glues weren't so bad. The older the piece, the more likely they are to have safe glues. [1]

Now for lead: You really don't want to eat or inhale lead. This might mean that you can't eat off of old dishes, for example (Friend of the family had an incident years ago). Or that you need to get something that was painted before 1978 tested for lead paint - and then, if you have it, you might have to treat the piece to seal the lead paint in. You might not want to lick the furniture or let kids do so. Not all paint was lead paint, and not everything got painted.

New furniture often leeches things from the plastics and foams and glues used in manufacturing. (So do new cars - it gives the 'new car' smell). Which aren't all that healthy either. This is despite safety regulations. I honestly don't know how it compares to antique stuff, though: We just know it is likely to have less known bad stuff and zero chances of lead.

[1]https://www.discoverypub.com/columns/michelleknows/1017_Mich...