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TIL that a lot of old books used arsenic in their green cloth bindings
Honestly, I was reading a library blog about 19th century book production and it said some green dyes back then were literally toxic. Ngl, it makes me nervous handling some of the older volumes I find at estate sales now. How do you all handle or identify potentially hazardous antique bindings?
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lopez.quinn3d agoTop Commenter
Man, we're gonna look back on microplastics the same way.
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That part about toxic green dyes... it's wild how many normal things from the past were just quietly poisonous. It's like old lead paint in toys, or asbestos in everything. We're surrounded by these choices that seemed fine at the time. Makes you wonder what stuff we use today will have people in fifty years saying "they did WHAT?
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