Nineteenth-century volumes, printed in Britain, feature emerald green covers, a color often achieved using arsenic during that era. University of Delaware researchers flagged the texts removed from shelves as potentially hazardous. The library assured that handling the books.
“We have put these works in quarantine and an external laboratory will analyse them to evaluate how much arsenic is present in each volume,” said a spokesperson from the National Library of France. would result in only minor harm.
The four books comprise the 1862-1863 publication of the Royal Horticultural Society, two volumes of Edward Hayes’ “The Ballads of Ireland” from 1855, and an 1856 bilingual anthology of Romanian poetry by Henry Stanley.
The compilation of potentially dangerous titles was assembled by the Poison Book Project, an initiative led by researchers from the University of Delaware in partnership with Delaware’s Winterthur Museum.
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The Paris establishment identified the problematic duplicates following the discovery by American researchers that publishers in the Victorian era utilized a chemical to dye book covers. This arsenic-infused green pigment was known as Paris green, emerald green, or Scheele’s green, named after a chemist originally from Germany.
The National Library of France announced its intention to extend its examination to other green-covered books beyond those listed in the Poison Book Project. While the World Health Organization cautions against long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic, primarily through drinking water and food, for its potential to cause skin lesions and skin cancer, it does not specifically mention the risk associated with contact with objects containing arsenic.
However, the Poison Book Project emphasizes that green bindings laced with arsenic pose a health risk to librarians, booksellers, collectors, and researchers, and recommends handling and storing them with caution.
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