Many old books contain toxic chemicals – here’s how to spot them

By Mark Lorch, University of Hull

In our modern society, we rarely consider books to be dangerous items. However, certain books contain elements so hazardous that they require scrutiny before being placed on the shelves of public libraries, bookstores or even private homes.

The Poisonous Book Project, a collaborative research project between Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and the University of Delaware, is dedicated to cataloguing such books. Their concern is not with the content written on the pages, but with the physical components of the books themselves — specifically, the colours of the covers.

The project recently influenced the decision to remove two books from the French national library. The reason? Their vibrant green cloth covers raised suspicions of containing arsenic.

This concern is rooted in historical practices in bookbinding. During the 19th century, as books began to be mass produced, bookbinders transitioned from using expensive leather covers to more affordable cloth items. To attract readers, these cloth covers were often dyed in bright, eye-catching colours.

Green, yellow, red

One popular pigment was Scheele’s green, named after Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a German-Swedish chemist who in 1775 discovered that a vivid green pigment could be produced from copper and arsenic. This dye was not only cheap to make, it was also more vibrant than the copper carbonate greens that had been used for over a century.

Scheele green eventually fell out of favour because it had a tendency to fade to black when it reacted with sulphur-based pollutants released from coal. But new dyes based on Scheele’s discovery, such as emerald and Paris green, proved to be much more durable. They were quickly adopted for use in various items, including book covers, clothing, candles and wallpaper.

These pigments, however, had a significant drawback: they degraded easily, releasing poisonous and carcinogenic arsenic. The frequent reports of green candles poisoning children at Christmas parties, factory workers tasked with applying paint to ornaments convulsing and vomiting green water  and warnings of poisonous ball dresses raised serious concerns about the safety of these green dyes.

Read Full Story https://theconversation.com/many-old-books-contain-toxic-chemicals-heres-how-to-spot-them-228834