These green books are poisonous--and one may be on a shelf near you

[Nevilledog]

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Justin Brower 🌻☠️🌻
@NaturesPoisons
A *very special* Toxicology Thursday and my first foray into journalism with National Geographic. Read about the toxic green books on shelves around the world and the wonderful work of a Winterthur Museum conservator and chemist. [free to read with e-mail]
These green books are poisonous—and one may be on a shelf near you
nationalgeographic.com

These green books are poisonous—and one may be on a shelf near you
A toxic green pigment was once used to color everything from fake flowers to book covers. Now a museum conservator is working to track down the noxious volumes.
6:27 AM · Apr 28, 2022

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/these-green-books-are-literally-poisonous

No paywall
https://archive.ph/TLhXA

Libraries and rare book collections often carry volumes that feature poisons on their pages, from famous murder mysteries to seminal works on toxicology and forensics. The poisons described in these books are merely words on a page, but some books scattered throughout the world are literally poisonous.

These toxic books, produced in the 19th century, are bound in vivid cloth colored with a notorious pigment known as emerald green that’s laced with arsenic. Many of them are going unnoticed on shelves and in collections. So Melissa Tedone, the lab head for library materials conservation at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Delaware, has launched an effort dubbed the Poison Book Project to locate and catalogue these noxious volumes.

To date, the team has uncovered 88 19th-century books containing emerald green. Seventy of them are covered with vivid green bookcloth, and the rest have the pigment incorporated onto paper labels or decorative features. Tedone even found an emerald green book on sale at a local bookstore, which she purchased.

While these poisonous books would likely cause only minor harm unless someone decided to devour a nearly 200-year-old tome, the alluringly vibrant books are not totally without risk. People who handle them frequently, such as librarians or researchers, may accidentally inhale or ingest particles that contain arsenic, which could make them feel lethargic and light-headed or suffer from diarrhea and stomach cramps. Against the skin, arsenic can cause irritations and lesions. Serious cases of arsenic poisoning can lead to heart failure, lung disease, neurological dysfunction, and—in extreme situations—death.

*snip*

[dalton99a]

1. If you have them, use gloves and plastic bags

The team next used the University of Delaware soil laboratory to measure the amount of arsenic in the cover of Rustic Adornments. They found that the bookcloth contained an average of 1.42 milligrams of arsenic per square centimeter. Without medical care, a lethal dose of arsenic for an adult is roughly 100 milligrams, the mass of several grains of rice.

“What are the implications of having so much arsenic in bookcloth, on your gloves, during treatment? What does that mean for your health and safety?” Grayburn asks.

To answer these question, Tedone and Grayburn reached out to Michael Gladle, the director of environmental health and safety at the University of Delaware. “Arsenic is a heavy metal and does have some toxicity associated with it, principally, either inhalation or ingestion,” he says. The relative risk of emerald green bookcloth “depends on frequency,” Gladle says, and is of primary concern “for those that are in the business of preservation.”

Following Gladle’s recommendations, Winterthur library removed nine green, arsenic-clothed books from circulation and placed them in large sealable polyethylene plastic bags. When handling or conserving afflicted books, they wear nitrile gloves, and afterward they wipe down hard surfaces and wash their hands.

[XanaDUer2]

2. I think Victorian wallpaper

Was also colored with this stuff

[Ocelot II]

4. Yup, Scheele Green.

It was in wallpapers and even dyes for clothing.

[MissLilyBart]

5. fascinating book about poisonous Paris green wallpaper

Bitten by Witch Fever

[Ocelot II]

6. I have that book! Fascinating!

[FakeNoose]

3. Referring to the old dyes and inks used in the 19th century ...

Very few of these old books are available to be handled in public libraries. For example our Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh does have a collection of old books and documents, however the general public cannot access them. Many are fragile (and some are toxic) and they are only available to historians and students who are trained in handling them.

Newer books that have been printed in the last 100 years have no issues with toxic inks and dyes. On the other hand, digital books will never have these problems for their users, only eye-strain.