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The Truth About Arsenic in the Victorian Era
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2024
- Have you ever wondered why the Victorians continued to wear and decorate with poison, even though they knew the dangers? Let's look into some of the myths about arsenic in the nineteenth century to understand how this deadly fashion managed to continue! It's not just about the allure of apple green walls or emerald silk gowns. Arsenic was far more common than you may know, but less dangerous than history has us believe.
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🖼19th c Pharmacist: www.loc.gov/it...
🖼Paris Green Canister: www.si.edu/obj...
🖼 Fowlers Solution Bottle: www.si.edu/obj...
🖼 Yellow Orpiment: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 Red Realgar: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 Egyptian Pottery: blogs.ucl.ac.u...
🖼 Arsenious Acid Bottle: www.nlm.nih.go...
🖼 Green Room Portrait: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 Cobalt Green: commons.wikime...
🖼 Viridian Green: shop.kremerpig...
🖼 Emeraldine: www.indiamart....
🖼 Reproduction Wallpapers: www.bradbury.com/
🖼 Flocked Wallpaper: collections.vam...
🖼 William Morris: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 Morris Wallpaper: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 "Free from Arsenic": www.bl.uk/coll...
🖼 The Great Lozenge-Maker: en.wikipedia.o...
🖼 University of Leeds: www.rsc.org/im...
🖼 Green Sitting Room: commons.wikime...
🖼 The Arsenic Waltz: wellcomecollec...
🖼 Arsenic Green Gown: www.ryerson.ca...
Further Reading
📚Bitten By Witch Fever: www.amazon.com...
📚The Arsenic Century: www.amazon.com...
📚Fashion Victims: www.amazon.com...
📚2004 Toxicity of TMAs: pubs.rsc.org/e...
📚2011 Arsenic Exposure and Toxicology: www.ncbi.nlm.n...
📚York Castle Museum Gown: news.cision.co...
📚Bata Shoe Museum Exhibition: batashoemuseum...
📚1796 Arsenic Medicine: archive.org/de...
📚1786 Fowler: archive.org/de...
📚1837 Arsenicated Candles: archive.org/de...
📚1876 Arsenical Wallpaper: archive.org/de...
📚1879 Arsenical Domestic Poisoning: archive.org/de...
📚1879 Our Domestic Poisons: archive.org/de...
📚1880 Arsenical Poisoning (wallpaper): archive.org/de...
📚1886 Arsenic in Wallpaper: archive.org/de...
📚1902 Chemical Properties of Di-methyl-arsine: archive.org/de...
📚1904 Arsenic in Papers and Fabrics: archive.org/de...
🎶Music via Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicso...)
What always bothers me about discussions on arsenic or lead or other toxic widely used chemicals in products is how the focus is often on those that bought the products. The reason is because the effects of arsenic poisoning were mostly felt by those that made the products, the miners, the factory workers. The danger was only taken seriously when consumers spoke up, even after hundreds and thousands of people had died manufacturing the products. The rich woman who wore her flower adorned bonnet may have gotten a facial rash and serious breathing complications, but the people who worked day in day out in the factories dyeing and painting the flowers with their bare hands without any protection over their faces from the fumes died from it. They died young, they died without medical care because they couldn't afford it. They slaved away in mines inhaling the dust all day and died from it, and they are barely talked about. It seriously saddens me.
I actually had a lot of that research in my first run of this video, but that came in at almost an hour long! Instead I put it aside for a video just on the dangers for (fashion) workers like origins of “mad as a hatter” and more. It needs more than just a quick reference.
Indeed, it's much more dangerous as a powder or as something that can get into the air and into your lungs (since once it's in your lungs its there for life and it can cause as-
I'm tired, my brain went to asbestos instead of arsenic. Carry on *facepalm*
@@NicoleRudolph Looking forward to that video, Nicole. The endangerment of fashion workers is still a relevant problem today, and many people struggle to see solutions, in part because they believe it is purely modern problem.
@@NicoleRudolph I wasn't trying to criticize the video by the way, because it's really good and it felt like you were specifically talking about the consumer end of things which is a very important topic to talk about! I just mentioned it because I was hoping to start a conversation, and I'm so excited to see that other video. Your videos on actual history are some of the best I've seen on UA-cam, you're doing really well! Thanks for replying to my comment, that's amazingly sweet :)
Similarly, in 1959, my dad worked at Johns-Manville for 9 months. In March 2019, he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. He died in October 2020. The only place he could have been exposed to asbestos was at Johns-Manville.
He always knew it was a risk, so he saved his tax returns and J-M gate passes, in case he ever needed proof to file a claim. The payout he got from the J-M Compensation Trust was just enough to cover his funeral costs.
Our house is 100 years old, when we purchased it, there were 7 layers of wallpaper on the walls. I found Paris Green wallpaper with a silver leaf arabesque pattern it was beautiful in a shabby chic sort of way. After removing all that wall paper--a lot of paper, even on the ceilings, I washed the plaster down. But got sick and was tested for everything, turns out I should have been wearing a hazmat suit, you guessed it. Arsenic poisoning. I went through chelation and am okay now, but it was an unpleasant process.
That is terrifying, glad you are okay now!
What was the process to recovery like ?? I’m genuinely curious 🙃😅
@@lilac24H You take a pill that helps leach the arsenic out of your system--bones, organs, and blood stream, along with a liquid called bentonite--sort of a clay that you mix with water and drink. The first thing that happens is you get terribly tired, then your muscles ache. At the end, your joints are aching terribly. It takes about 4 months, when it is over, you are given supplements to help rebuild your body, when they kick in, you start feeling better. Exercise is something you don't do a lot of during the process, but when it is over, you do feel much better.
@@carolyncoulter4116 Ohh interesting! Thanks for responding! I'm sorry you had to go through that though!
😯
I love things that show that no, people in the past weren't stupider or sillier or more willing to hurt themselves for vanity than us. They were just people, with the same people logic and problems we have now. Imagine all of the things we do that people in the future will think is dead stupid! A good reminder to stay humble.
But also we need to give them credit for stupidity where it is due. We have had anorexia plagues thanks to the Fat Fear. There is no way those tiny waists in fashion magazines did not cause tightlacing obsessions, no matter how much internet historophiles insist normal people didn't do it daily.
@@frenchbreadstupidity7054 every waist looks tiny in a 10-12 ft diameter hoop skirt
@@frenchbreadstupidity7054
The average person DIDN'T do it every day. They used hip padding, shoulder padding, and paint tricks.
The people who did it were heavily criticized by both men and women.
@@ingloriousMachina Exactly. I've seen plenty of satire art from the Victorian days making fun of people who tightlace or do other extreme fashion trends.
Plus your average Victorian would have been thinner than your average person today because they didn't have the processed foods or sedentary lifestyle we do today. People did a lot more manual labor in their daily lives than most people do today. So people with naturally thinner frames plus padding to make them look even thinner are going to look dangerously thin to people today!
@@frenchbreadstupidity7054 I really want proof of your claims. It would be interesting to see from what historical sources and historical research you took this.
As someone who deeply appreciates the macabre elements of Arsenic greens, but has little interest or spare time to invest in deep-diving the research, this video is so good.
Completely unrelated, but we have the same name and I'd just like to say "I'm sorry"
typical story of humanity: look at this new invention, it's fantastic so let's put it in everything!
20 year's later: oh, maybe we made a mistake. Let's get rid of it.
50 years later: ppl still dying from after effects
cough _radiation_ cough cough
replace "humanity" with "capitalism," then your statement is 100% accurate. that's how capitalism manages to create a self-perpetuating cycle of "growth": rush to market with a flawed product that has to be replaced later with another flawed product that has to be replaced ...
I once went to a museum exhibit all about death and various ways people have died throughout history, and they had on display an absolutely GORGEOUS gown dyed using Scheele's green. It was so vibrant and stunning and honestly, I can see why someone would have wanted to strut their stuff in it lol
I saw that "Fashion Victims" exhibit at the Bata Museum in Toronto, Canada. And I have the "Fashion Victims" book that goes with it.
@@OofusTwillip thank you very much for the book name, I feel it might be very interesting to read
Was it at the Houston Museum of Natural Science around 2 years ago? There was a temporary exhibit with sections around random things (where the dress was) venomous and toxic animals, plants, radium, Napoleon, and people who died in really comical ways.
@@sarahtaylor4264 That was the one! My favorite bit, other than the dress, was the plague doctor outift and the poison garden.
@@beccar5052 Cool! It's crazy to stumble on someone else who went years later. I loved the whole exhibit. The dress was beautiful. I had never seen that color before and I'm not a huge fan of green, but I would wear that (if the dye was safe of course). My other favorite is thier paleontology collection.
The danger of old, papered over arsenic wallpapers wasn’t arsenic gas, it was people buying old properties, and stripping back the old paper without taking precautions. The OLD, decaying, shedding wallpaper, which got into the air very easily. These days there are resources that advise how to handle stripping wallpaper in an old home safely.
Yes, and children licking damp wallpaper or people touching it and then their eyes/mouth. Arsenic in wallpaper is _very_ dangerous when it ceases to be inert (in solution).
yeah just paint over it again like every other previous guy did
One of the factors about William Morris that's not widely known is that he had a financial interest in arsenic mining and his family were hugely entangled in it. Along with his father and many other family members he was an investor in the Devon Great Consols mine (on the Devon/Cornwall border, UK) which mined copper and arsenic. It was the biggest producer of arsenic in the world at the time. He was a shareholder for about 20yrs and was Director of the company in the early to mid 1870s. I grew up and still live in the grounds of what would have been the resident mine directors house (Morris's Uncle had this job). There's an area of former mines that are now open to the public but the ground still has extremely high levels of arsenic so you have to quite careful walking there.
Anybody up for a Masters or PhD???
That's amazing.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
That’s really interesting. Can you grow vegetables in your garden there, or would you accidentally poison yourselves?
@@ReisigSeeds Likely poison yourself. Here in Ottawa we have problems with the soil in formerly industrial sections of town. The only remedy is to remove the first foot or two of topsoil, replace with fresh. And hope for the best. Brassicas, like broccoli, are very good at pulling up metal toxins? Nobody ever talks about where they dump the contaminated soil, but anyway...
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
@@ReisigSeeds the area with the actual mines doesn't have many houses but the ones that are there are contaminated. Most of it is covered in pine forest and it seems like that's something that's done with contaminated land. Our garden is fine as far as we know. We're a couple of miles from those mine workings, though we are near others. I have always wondered about the extended local area though, it's not like it's clear where contaminated soil ended up. The mines are so extensive and it's not just arsenic. There is a nearby village that had to go through the decontamination process about 6yrs ago because it was along the transport route of the arsenic.
I grew up near the border with Devon. I lived in a small village & my mum grew all our vegetables. It was only in 2012 when the 1911 UK census was released that I found out that a good percentage of the village had been employed in arsenic mining. Incidentally Morwhellam Quay (now a living museum) in the Tamar valley used to export enough arsenic each day to poison the world's population three times over. I learnt this on a school trip at the age of 12 and it has stuck with me.
New rule: instead of apologizing for bad puns, Costubers need to apologize when they *don't* have bad puns in their videos. :D
I for one am a stan for bad puns.
I feel like this should be a collab with ask a mortician.
Omg yes!!!!
Ooh, yes and the Mütter museum!
Oooh maybe Caitlin Doughty from Ask a Mortician?
Agreed! And, somehow, a collab with Christine McConnel...
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
I feel like Caitlin would really enjoy Costube.
I lived in the SW and its in the water table. I now live in the PNW and I was having some weird health issues so they did a heavy metals test and I came back positive for arsenic and it FREAKED my GP out. He thought someone was poisoning me. Thankfully I knew that there is tons of arsenic in the water table where I grew up. But boy it was a weird conversation.
"Are you safe at home...?"
"Uh yeah? Why?"
"Well we're concerned because you have a lot of arsenic in your system"
"Oh thats normal"
*shocked Pikachu face* "whaaaa?"
"Oh yeah I'm from the sw. Its in the water"
Oh my gosh, this is terrifying but also terribly funny 😂
It's worrying that they haven't sorted out out on the water
Ya we have a lot of arsenic in the water where i grew up as well.
@@cashkitty3472 where i live it's not due to humans but the natural geological deposits
Wtf is SW? Some of us aren't from your country man
"Why would they poison themselves for fashion?!"
People have the most toxic substance known to man injected into their foreheads to get rid of wrinkles, which sounds just as dumb when simplified down like that.
What substance is this?
@@emile_fa botox (Botulinum Toxin)
Also good for migraine headaches and excessive jaw clenching
Coming from someone who surely eats gmo food lol I rather have my Botox which is not arsenic and gmo
@@N0N4M30 GMOs aren't dangerous or bad.
When I was in high school I had tons of weird partially bleached spots appearing on my t-shirts and it took me MONTHS to figure out it was due to my leave-in conditioner, for some reason I kept thinking of that during this video as an example of how hard it can be to know what's causing something. We have absolutely no idea what risks people in the future will think we were "stupid" to take and what things they'll think we're "stupid" for having worried about. People are people.
I think that is something we need to remember more often. People are just people.
It's worth noting lot of things that are safe if used appropriately react in weird ways if they're put together which can alarm the uninformed though. For example, bug spray can dissolve nylon clothing. Orange peels can dissolve styrofoam.
The same thing happened to me. I noticed that my pillowcases and washcloths were starting to bleach. I'd switched to a nightly acne cream that had peroxides in it. I didn't know the levels were enough to turn a blue pillowcase to a yellow center until long after. It doesn't help that the changes in color are subtle at first.
Your story reminded me of my lavender story. I first started experiencing migraines in high school, especially in a particular class. I didn’t even realize they were migraines, and they would fade afterward, and teens are bad noticing the obvious.
Years later, living on my own, I kept hearing that lavender is good for headaches. I had some lavender scented bath salts, so I would soak a washcloth in a mix of water and the bath salts. It never helped me, so I decided it was a garbage idea.
Only a few years later did I figure out not just that I get migraines, but that lavender is a migraine trigger for me. So I avoid it, actively, everywhere.
Then I went to my 25th high school reunion. Someone mentioned the “pillow room”, where the hippy religion teacher liked to hold classes, and how the pillows were scented with…yup. Lavender. I just about screamed-that was the class I would get the headaches in!
This is the best point from this video and its comments: slow, long term effects are really hard to find, and it's kind of a miracle when we find them before it's too late. But oof, now I'm thinking about climate change and... 🙃
Iocaine power: odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in ... nevermind
Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. Ah ha, ah ha, *falls over*
thats what was running through my head as she was saying it! hahahaa!
I bought my own copy of that. As a matter of fact, every household in the family has it!
AQUA TOFANA! aqua tofana....aquatofana.....
😂 my train of thought EXACTLY
"Just don't go licking wood"
Me, remembering in full imax detail, how I and fellow 7 yr olds would eat dirt: 👀👀👀
My dad used the green stuff to build the walls for a sandbox for me and my brother when we were kids
He told us to hold off on using it until it rained heavily a few times because that could wash a lot of the arsenic off
*VERY SERIOUSLY* if you are cutting up old railway sleepers or telegraph pols for you garden WEAR A RESPIRATOR..!!!
The reason they have not rotted in the last 100 years is they are literally SATURATED under high pressure with Arsenic, and then covered in tar. They are 100% safe like this, but when you cut them the sawdust contains potentially lethal levels of Arsenic.
Wasn't that the problem with "treated" lumber some years back? I remember when every patio fence in my development, along with some elaborate (& expensive!) playgrounds suddenly had to be replaced. {Edit]: Aaaaand I just got to that part in the video; serves me right for scrolling through comments before watching Nicole.
@@rejoyce318 LOL - I do that as well with the comments. Yes it was - but it was at nothing like the levels in the sleepers and telegraph poles. People use old ones for their garden cos they NEVER rot, they can be 150 years old and still perfect, yeah - they don't rot cos they are absolutely saturated with Arsenic. It was not a problem - no one was on the train tracks liking the sleepers - and they covered them in tar to stop the Arsenic evaporating or washing out. So its still in there.
My uncle - who is a farmer, so not soft, made himself really ill by cutting about 20 of them up with a hand saw.
@@piccalillipit9211 I remember when they had to close a ball field in my neighborhood because the soil tested for toxic levels of arsenic. The entire area had been a large orchard when I was growing up. It was a common chemical in farming ... before some even more toxic pesticides came along.
@@rejoyce318 Pesticides these days are definitely NOT as dangerous as arsenic. The whole point of using newer man-made pesticides rather than simple molecules (that just destroy everything) like arsenic compounds is that we can engineer them to be less dangerous. Newer pesticides don't last in the environment nearly as long. Most are safe to be around after a day and safe to eat in a week. Once arsenic is in something, it's basically never safe again.
@@sianmilne4879 Sorry I didn't clarify, I was thinking of the pesticides of my childhood, including DDT.
“That was a terrible ending.”
I audibly answer while giggling, “no it was great!”
Me too! Absolutely my favorite part of a fantastic video.
Same! I loved all the puns and other funny comments in this video. It brought much needed levity to what could be a very depressing subject. Thanks Nicole! I love your videos --you have a great presenter's voice. It is quite enjoyable to listen.
it was the /best/ ending XD
Same here! That ending was perfect 😄👌
It was a perfect ending.
'Used arsenic instead of plaster of Paris' in candy... And not an eyebrow was raised at either of those as a food ingredient..... Great video as always! 👍
I watched a video of foods from that time it's scary how little actual food they were eating!!
There was a lot of food additive being done to make ingredients go further and make a buck. Lots of plaster, sawdust, etc.
Sugar was really expensive so many sweet makers used other ingredients to cut corners.
@@Notlost-lj9qt But isn't sawdust full of fiber?...
@@Notlost-lj9qt Just so we're clear, they put sawdust in bread (and as a coating on shredded cheese to keep it from sticking) today. Go check the shelves of your local grocery store and look for the high fiber white or "lite" sometimes labeled as 40% fewer calories and look for the word "cellulose" That is occasionally from oat bran, but for the most part it's the fiber from paper processing.**
From the NYTimes as far back as 1985 "THE source of fiber in a number of high-fiber breads is nonnutritional wood pulp, according to a Washington-based consumer group. The group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, listed nine such breads on the market: Less; Roman Lite; Lite Loaf; Lite'n Up; Merita Lite; Tasty Lite; Sunbeam Lite; Vim, and 40.
These breads are said to contain 70 percent of the calories of regular white bread and 400 percent more fiber than whole wheat bread. To reduce calories and increase fiber, some of the flour in the breads is replaced by alpha cellulose, sometimes listed as powdered cellulose on labels. Only Less uses alpha cellulose from soy and bran as well as wood pulp. The others use just wood pulp. There is no evidence either way that ingesting wood pulp is harmful."
**as bad as THAT may sound, most vanillin, the prime compound that gives vanilla it's scent and what is used for almost all artificial vanilla flavoring is by-product of paper processing as well, (the lignin that turns cheap paper yellow) and since the other way artificial vanilla extract is made is from petroleum.... I guess that could be considered a step up?
what if....microplastics are the new arsenic?
I guess we'll find out 😅😥
And what will future generations say about our naive and profligate use of Wifi?
"people still used fireplaces, even though electric heating was available? They didn't care about the fine dust and smog? Wut????"
In high school I did a small experiment with plants and yeah its not great for living creatures
Sitting here, knitting with my cotton yarn... my green cotton yarn. I know it's extremely unlikely there's arsenic in the dye, but... **twitch** You should do a video on the history of radium in fashion items!
Yesss! I was going to suggest this! 💚💚💚
Omg yes!! Even in makeup!
Okay, now that I've watched to the end in case is got explained later: that one guy (accidentally) poisoned kids by putting arsenic in candy, but the thing he ACTUALLY meant to put in the candy was PLASTER OF PARIS?? I'm no confectioner, but why would he?? Was that NORMAL? Is that even safe?
Willy Wonka from hell aside, excellent video! I enjoyed learning why arsenic was so pervasive and it's always nice to have someone bust the myths about how our predecessors were soooooo ~dumb~ and sooooo ~vain~ and wore arsenic for the fun of it and corsets that squeezed them to death!
So there was a reason, it just wasn’t a good one 😂 basically before strict food regulations, questionable food additives were very common as a way to stretch expensive ingredients, such as bleached flour (which could have chalk dust added) or white sugar (which the plaster of Paris supplemented). For foods that were sold by weight, these non-organic additives often also made the product heavier, so you could possibly get more money for the same labor output.
The specific candies in the Bradford case were called humbugs, which are a black and brown striped hard candy. The coloring and opacity of the candy made it hard to see if the candy had been altered, and being a wildly popular candy as well it was a good place for manufacturers to cut corners.
Plaster of paris was apparently used in white sugar based candies in small quantities in the 19th c and is actually safe. It just isn't exactly tasty, so it was used in small amounts (hence why those candies didn't straight kill everyone).
Yeah you can eat hardened plaster of Paris in modest amounts without any harm, although it doesn't taste very nice. But if you eat it in _powder_ form (i.e. before it is mixed with water and set) it will give you very severe burns
It's totally normal and still legal in any amount, usually noted as calcium sulfate, or e516.
Let's not forget the role that greed played and has always played in public health vs. commerce. William Morris made his fortune by shares in an arsenic mine. And despite the fact that in his later years he was a bit of a social activist, he made sure everyone including his dye makers believed his products were safe - even though the mine workers suffered terrible health issues.
Alfred Nobel only invested into his public image after his brothers death was mistaken for his own (and eulogies focused on the explosives and deaths associated)
I just added a similar comment. Several of his family members were mine supervisors and main investors and they were so entangled with the mines some of them are named after his family members. It's always interested me that this factor is left out of many biographies of Morris.
@@jeanettemullins Hi Jeanette! While this wasn't a Morris bio, he plays such an integral role in why the UK wasn't interested in pursuing health & safety laws re: arsenic after the public's claims of illness and death ("I will publicly eat my wallpaper!" - but knew better and never did), that I do believe his part in the history of arsenic in fashion should be explored in depth on videos such as this. No slight on this video - I'm an avid fan!
@@karenblack2869 Very much so. Hopefully his involvement might be something more people begin to become more aware of. The arsenic topic seems to come up every few months on fashion history UA-cam videos so it would be great to see it mentioned.
This just blew my mind. I remember in elementary school we had a wooden boat on the playground and they randomly decided to have it demolished. I wonder if it was due to it having copper arsenate...
There was an all-wooden playground by a small park that I loved as a little kid, and noticed had been taken down a few years ago. I think it was for this reason.
I remember learning about toxic wallpaper dyes when I read the Yellow Wallpaper in school and one of the theories is that the wallpaper in the woman’s room was what was making her hallucinate and feel sick.
That story still always freaks me out a bit even just to think about. One of the creepiest things I've ever read and it's not even really a horror story
Yeah, William Morris owned shares in arsenic mines here in the UK. So he definitely had ulterior motives for saying his products were safe.
When you said arsenic was being used as a treatment for wood, I realised that it was what was used also on utility poles, and at least in Finland old utility poles are still apparently in so high demand that people steal them because regular people here aren't allowed to get them legally. Not only are those used for random things like sheds etc., some have actually made cottages and saunas out of those old poles. Fun.
Anyway, this video was very informative and I highly enjoyed it, ending and all. 😄
I think the general air quality in England and any other large 19th century city would also contribute to people experiencing ill-health. All the coal burned by homes and factories filled the air with particulates, CO2 and vaious other poisonous oxides.
I remember when I did my MA and we were looking at a couple of illustrated medieval documents which had big pictures of plants, the green used at times completely ate through the velum leaving holes. Not an arsenic green but still corrosive/dangerous. It's funny how green is so abundant in nature yet so tricky for pigments!
It's because of how tricky a blue that mixes well with other colours is (which is why purple could also not be made by mixing). The best blue for mixing was indigo, which was expensive.
Thanks for this research and video! Poisonous ingredients included in candy, are something that I have seen mentioned in most of the 19th and early 20th century cookbooks that I have seen (one of my main areas of research). Not so much in English cookbooks, but definitely in American cookbooks, which generally contain multiple recipes for making candy at home. Apparently, one of the most popular party activities for young adults and children, was making candy, and the introduction to the "candy and sweets" chapter of these books almost always contains some discussion of the need to make all of your candy at home, in order to avoid the poisonous dyes that created the garish colors in commercially-produced candies.
This could also be part of the reasoning behind the 19th century obsession with good ventilation inside the home. This issue made its way into many domestic information and housekeeping manuals, especially in the U.S.
@Kristal Power I haven't read of Plaster of Paris being used in candy making, but the cookbooks that have candy recipes in them (apart from the ones aimed at professional confectioners) warn about poisonous dyes that are used in commercially-made candy, and tell their readers to make their own candy at home so that you can feed your children wholesome candy.
@Kristal Power Plaster of Paris was cheap and considered safe to ingest, so it was a common filler in some foods at the time.
I used to consume mints that were made of talc powder. Once I read the ingredients, never ate them again.
Another piece of the need for good ventilation was the greater use of fire for cooking and heating in the 19thc, and how easy it is to die of carbon monoxide poisoning if you don't ventilate
"Arsenic was in more things than you'd think"
Me, violently intolerant to corn syrup: I dunno, I can think of a lot
I feel you. I can handle corn syrup fine, but I've developed a sensitivity to allium bulbs (read: garlic and onions) and well, it's a good thing I'm stuck at home and have time to cook because I'd estimate 80% of prefab savory foods in the grocery store - this is everything from microwave meals to canned soup to mixed seasonings and sauces - have at least one of them. (even "natural flavors" is often garlic powder :( it's fun!)
Yeah, it's crazy how much stuff has HFCS in it.
I developed an intolerance to Red 40. It's sad how much tasty, tasty chocolate has red added to make it look richer. And bottled ice-teas, and pretty much anything red.
I got to see a 1850s-60s dress that used arsenic green dye. The spots that hadn't been water-stained or faded from age were BEAUTIFUL. I'm not the biggest fan of green, but I would wear it no question if the dye was safe. I don't think I have ever seen that color on a modern garment sadly.
As a pharmacist, I actually liked the pun in the end 😉 ( a salt can be any kind of salt, cation and anion, not only the usually implied table salt sodium chloride) also, very informative video! People didn’t know better back then, and the manufacturers continued to make profits because they could. Thanks so much for modern laws, regulations and testing! Firms sometimes still try to circumvent those regulations, but hopefully get called out.
"Just wash your hands if you play on it...which I feel like is something that you should do anyway." I know that in my household, both as a child, and with my brother's kids as an adult, hand washing is the second thing that you do when you get inside, after removing shoes.
My mom had her mom's old cookbook from the 1920s and it had instructions on how to test many household items for toxins or adulteration. Apparently it was pretty common for basics like milk and flour to have inedible mixed in.
Which cookbook is it? Can you give an author and title?
I remember working at lowes...I worked there for 20 years...I remember when arsenic was banned in treated lumber. A crew came in over night and took every stick of lumber treated with it and replaced it. I remember the lumber area gave me such a headache and people thought I was crazy!
I find this subject creepily fascinating. I have an 1870s book by the Massachusetts Board of Health, with small samples of arsenical wallpapers and fabrics, in all sorts of colours. The most arsenical paper sample is a vibrant magenta. The most arsenical fabric sample is turkey red. Naturally, I keep the book sealed in a plastic bag, and wear gloves and a mask when I touch it.
Arsenic in paint as a mode of death for artists had to fight it out with lead and mercury. So many options :)
Don't forget all the cadmium colours!
@@hollyingraham3980 So many options!
Don't forget that arsenic was used in paints on children's toys and that many likely died from chewing on them. We do have some articles from the time of children who died in a matter of hours after playing with a new toy, on which bite marks were found.
Awww😟
This is really interesting! I'm currently researching the use of pigments on sculpture in ancient Greece and one text I read stated that 2000 years ago Strabo already mentioned how the mining of arsenic yellow in the silver mines of Anatolia lead to such high causality rates that only convicted criminals were made to work in the mines, and the pigment was rarely used due to its toxicity.
Fascinating! I'd love to hear what you've found about those sculptures. :)
White lead was also far more rarely used in makeup than the hype makes out! Rice and other starch powders, or for the ridiculously wealthy, crushed pearls, were more common. The hazards were well known (although some people did still use it; apparently it has a skin finish like nothing else and looks amazing). People weren't as stupid as we think!
Well... except the Victorians. And that seems mostly because they'd figured out spin, PR, and resisting health and safety lobbies on a large scale to make more profit. So it was really more corporate endangerment, huh...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Have you published your results since then?
Never apologize for puns. I thought it was a great way to end the video. Great job presenting your research. A fascinating dive.
ALWAYS INTEND THE PUN
If a pun can be made, it MUST BE MADE
I honestly distrust people that dislike puns
Green tinted "Pressure Treated Wood". Yup. We built our entire backyard patio in the 1970s of that stuff and my whole family got sick for several days from the sawdust. And no, they did not disclose that the pressure treatment contained arsenic.
Arsenic green dye was used to make green candied cherries and for making Angelica that unnatural green well into the 1980s. You can still find concerning green dyes coming out of China to this day.
Arsenic dye was also found in the glazes used in pottery.
I find it interesting that the use of arsenic for orchard management isn't mentioned at all. This continues to be an issue in soil remediation for ex-farm land. Super interesting research and video.
Thank you for such an interesting video.
Years ago, I once had a vintage hat, 1918-1920 ish. It was a beautiful emerald green, decorated with feathers and flowers. Everytime I would wear it, I would get terrible headaches, and breakout in rashes on my forehead and face..I stopped wearing it. Put it in a box, and sometime later I noticed a strange dust type film on it. I have since got rid of it. Is it possible that it was Arsenic Dyed??
Wow! I could have been poisoning my self without realizing it!
It's not likely to be arsenic by that point, as aniline dyes were common and cheap, but there's tons of other metals used in the dyeing process that could irritate your skin. No different than some people have reactions to jewelry!
That sounds like mold/fungus. Vintage and antique things are often covered in mold.
This is fantastically informative. There was a playground near my house that was called timber town when I was little. It was torn down in around 2005/2006 and replaced with a composite plastic, pirate-themes playground set. Arsenic treated wood explains that.
I find it fascinating that we get so hung up on people in the past not letting go of toxic materials that were making them sick, but TODAY....we do the exact same thing 🤣 We slather ourselves in endocrine disrupting plastics (why is EVERYTHING at the grocery store wrapped in plastic and styrofoam???), put petroleum waste products in everything (our cosmetic regulation in the US is still pretty alarming!), and many of us are still slathering our armpits with toxic heavy metals so they smell pretty when we're sweaty....
And humans have known that lead is toxic, especially in pipes that carry drinking water, since at least the days of the Roman Empire. Yet, it wasn't until somewhere in the 1980's that the US finally banned it, but recommended AGAINST digging up all the existing lead lined pipes till they wear out and have outlived their intended purpose. And this had some really bad effects fairly recently, in Newark, NJ, when one of two chemicals that gets added to the water supply, to make it safe to drink, was mismeasured for months, leading to the leaching of much more lead into the water supply, for many living in the area. It is only now that they are rethinking that idea of leaving all that old lead in place, but they are forcing home owners to bear the weight of the financial costs of replacing old lead lined service lines, while leaving old lead lined water mains intact, until they break.
I’m still snickering over my find of a recently reprinted Victorian fabric that the primary color is arsenic green…I’m looking forward to making an arsenic gown…
This is the perfect snowy Sunday sewing mood
The further I got into this video, the angrier I felt about an "educational" video that I'd seen some time ago that was perpetuating the myths about arsenic in the Victorian era. (It was also pushing all of the usual corset myths, too. It was just a dumpster fire of misinformation.) I'm also reminded of all of those myths about women that died because of green dresses; "because her skin had absorbed the arsenic from the fabric". I really appreciate how much you actually researched this subject, and that you've pointed out some of the myths and misinformation most people have heard about it.
I actually watched a video earlier this month about that candy poisoning case.
I think I know what "documentary" you are talking about and I totally agree! I've been watching all these lovely ladies on youtube and learned so much so when I saw that corset episode again I was so furious at how wrong it was. Why do some many find putting down the people of the past? That is our history and yes they may have done some things we think are silly today, videos like this show they did the best they could with the information they had.
Some people just can't hold their arsenic( -based coloured gowns)
She had it comin'
she only had herself to blame
If you'd have been there...
If you have seen it
I bet ya you would have worn the same
😅
I don't know why I feel like watching a horror story.
Probably because polyesters are literally everywhere today as well.
I just wanted you to know that I mentally added "and old lace" every time you said arsenic... :-)
YES
Why?
@@maggieholland8202 it's an old movie about two old biddies who keep killing people :)
@@whodapole oh, ok. I was side eyeing my antique lace with concern
@@whodapole it was also a play. Very popular for high school drama...
I wonder how much the modern association between very vivid, saturated green and toxicity is due to our history with arsenic and the emphasis put on arsenic green as a harmful substance
I suddenly realized the reason my grandma called the green solid color in her quilts “poison green” .It is the color of your blouse.
I had no idea arsenic was used in SO MANY different items and colors! Thanks for doing the research!
I had no idea about arsenic being used as an adjunct in lots of colours... (yes I knew about Paris and Scheele's greens, have read "Mauve" about William Perkin, which mentions it). Thank heavens for modern OEKO-TEX certification... (as I'm wearing a dark green skirt that I made, and felling the seams on a dark teal dress).
Have you read Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers? The classic murder-mystery using arsenic :)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a good poison read as well!
@@reelirish7 And the movie is *perfect* cinema.
- Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown
Yes! Great story, ❤ the series.
Yes, ❤ the series.
If like period mystery, Miss Phryne Fisher Mysteries, the books.
The vids are visually fab, but scriptwriter ran them thru a blender.
I used to wear authentic genuine antique garments from the 18th, 19th, centuries, one a very beautiful “Green Crinoline” and no doubt there must have been arsenic in some of them, as a young 20yr old model in the 90s I/we did not think of arsenic.
A very very interesting subject, really enjoyed.
The use of arsenic might have continued after it was known to be toxic if most people had brief exposure. You mentioned the queen and her brief/no exposure to rooms with arsenic-based wallpaper. You also pointed out that the effects may happen sometime after exposure. In your research, did you find any information about arsenic exposure in the manufacturing of textiles? Workers/child workers at these plants would have constant, higher exposure. I have heard/read about workers exposed to asbestos and radium ("Radium Girls"), but not arsenic.
Yeah, there's tons about the problems with manufacturing, but it's really murky and deserves its own video (on the list for the future). Lots of places put laws about child labor with arsenic in place, but with adults due to the vague symptoms they rarely assumed it was more dangerous than all of the other terrible conditions.
Bettie van Wegen made a similar comment an hour before I posted (oops). Nicole responded to her comment and said that the effects of toxic materials on fashion workers deserve their own video so watch this space...... I totally agree.
Orpiment and realgar! I remember yelling at fellow mineralogy students who decided to eat lunch right after handling these minerals without washing their hands *rolls eyes*
I had a small piece of realgar as a child that was given to me by an older member of a gem and mineral club my family was in.. this is the first time im hearing i shouldve been careful with it :/
At least i knew not to touch the stuff in the nuclear raw materials kit.
Nicole, you should see if you could get the bodice tested via XRF. This is commonly used in the museum field to identify heavy metal pesticides.
It was also used "to treat tumor diseases of various types". I read that one in a really old medical book that a friend had. I can't remeber the dosage, but it was very little, got mixed with something else, and was made into a tonic.
I had no idea that arsenic was used so much in colours throughout history, before this I'd only ever heard about lead paint, not arsenic everything! Loved the video!!
I normally probably wouldn't have watched a video on arsenic in historical beauty/household products but I just read an interesting article on how one should boil rice for five minutes, drain the water, then cook as normal....because apparently most rice has arsenic in it. Especially if its grown in areas where cotton has ever been grown because of the residual arsenic in the ground. So your video caught my eye for this odd reason. :) Nice job!
The arsenic in rice comes from various sources--including chicken manure from chickens who are given trace amounts of arsenic as a growth enhancer. Apparently it makes them gain weight quickly at low levels.
I should mention that wallpaper was on every wall in every room. It took a good while to remove by myself and I didn't wear mask or gloves. I did wet the paper, so it was wet when I removed it, but arms and hands did make contact with the solution created by all that wet paper. Not Fun.
The concept of time travel to the 1800s just got a *lot* less appealing.
I believe William Morris also owned an arsenic mine, so he had a vested interest in arsenic being used.
I quite literally "smashed that like button" as soon as I saw this! "Arsenic" greens are my absolute favorite colors and this is a topic that has always fascinated me. Thank you so much for sharing this info!! Also that green antique bodice is to die for!..... 🤦♀️
"Everything is poison, nothing is poison."
The dose makes the poison too.
A lot of things can kill you if you are exposed to the right dose for your size.
Delightful video as always! I love all the fascinating (though sometimes gruesome) details of the regulations and myths. Interestingly enough, the arsenic sulphides - particularly orpiment, natural and synthetic - were much prized and widely used as artists' pigments, and are still available today. Plenty of historical texts advising caution while using them, however. And SOME countries today restrict access to accredited restorers and conservators.... Besides all that, I always get a bit....puzzled by contemporary cries of "shocking! how could they knowingly poison themselves!" given that plastic and non-stick cookware and food crops drenched in poisons are hardly a thing of the distant past!
My husband had Arsenic creams for eczema’s on his body. It accumulates around the brain. Babies always put fingers in mouths.
There weren’t wash basins in the same place as the loo either. Washing hands frequently was a realistic problem and cause many to invest what they had been spraying around the garden, or after wallpapering.
Thank you for this video! I knew about the arsenic-green-was-toxic-and-fashionable thing (I appreciate the extra details) and it was really fascinating to learn that the arsenic was in other colors as well as the history of it beyond just the dyes and wallpaper. Also, I absolutely love that minty green color, which might be why I got interested in this topic in the first place!
That part about arsenic wallpapers being seen as fine as long as they're high quality, don't shed, glazed over, ... reminds me so much of the situation with asbestos in building materials, which literally *is* fine and won't hurt you as long as it is stuck inside your walls but the *minute* you try to drill a hole through that fibrolite siding or pull up that ancient lino you absolutely *need* to put on a hazmat suit and wrap your entire house in a Tent of Danger (or whatever it is they do specifically; it's a big deal either way).
I think that this teaches something that is good to keep in mind for all of historical myths of sort, keep in mind to always ask the question, how do we know this? Where did this information come from and how did certain people benefit from the spread of this information?
Me learning that all my fav fashion historians should always be using gloves and masks when handling old things...and not just for the garments' preservation
Sometimes the safer thing is bare hands with lots of hand washing. It's more dangerous to manhandle/tear clothing and release all those fibers into the air. If I'm digging inside of that jacket I'll do bare hands and arms so I don't accidentally cause abrasion or rips.
No. Gloves often cause more problems especially as they reduce dexterity
In 1888, my great-great grandfather, who obviously had a drinking problem, went on a bender and lost his job as a result. The next day, he put a packet of Paris green in a pot of coffee and drank it. You can imagine the result. He left my great-great grandmother a widow with five children to raise. How do I know this? I found a story about it in my hometown paper while doing some research. o_O
I found your videos tonight and am binge watching. You are magnificent!! I am 75 and have sewn since I was ten. Each video is even better than the last...or is at least just as fascinating and educational. Always comprehensive, easy to understand the "how-tos", and such a wide variety of subjects. Loving the arsenic subject. I read a wonderful mystery about a poisonous vintage gown a few years ago that really was a fabulous read. Your video is just as compelling.
Im a carpenter/cabinetmaker, and the wood that is treated with the copper arsenic you mentioned is referred to as pressure treated green usually. I never really put 2 and together that they're the same chemicals as some arsenic dyes!! They were banned fairly recently, and the pressure treated lumber used now is dark brown, and treated with micronized copper azole(thx google). Pt lumber is used primarily for any of the wood construction coming into contact with the foundation, and other exposed exterior construction, such as decks, stairs, columns, etc. It is used because the treatment makes it rot resistant, and weather resistant. The only wood that i am aware of that does this naturally is cedar, which cannot be used as an alternative because its much too soft. Ive worked with pt lumber before and its not a joke. You have to cut it outside, with no exposed skin, and wear gloves, goggles, and a mask. You have to use fasteners that have a weather resistant coating, like galvanized nails, because otherwise it will completely dissolve the fasteners within a few years. Its super toxic which is why its only used outdoors.
And as baseplates for basement or ground level walls.
An acquaintance made her own planter beds with PT lumber, without using PPE, and got life-threateningly ill from it. I don't know if it was the old arsenic type or the new stuff, and I don't recall if she also ate vegetables grown in the planter beds or if she got too sick to garden before getting around to growing anything.
When you grimaced while talking about black mould... I felt that U_U
Wonderfully informative!
Me too. We’re fighting a seemingly losing battle with it in our 1820’s stone built house.
Dishonesty in manufacturing and marketing is still a thing. Wonder what people will talk about years from now? Lead paint/pipes of the past, anyone. Natural, Clean, Chemical free, Fragrance Free and Cruelty Free may be all examples. How much of that is really true? The more things change the more they stay the same.
"Organic" is not an actual regulated term. It can go on anything!
Exactly this! I think in the future we're going to be as weirded out by how we are now as current people are weirded out by the past.
I was thinking this morning how GREAT it would be to go back in history, swan around Pemberley, eat all the organic stuff, wear the lovely natural fibre fashion and be in a place that was all romantic, robust and real!! Then I watched this.
Ugh.
Thank you for researching and sharing the history of arsenic. If you haven't already read it, you might enjoy Sharyn McCrumb's "If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him" (1995), which concerns two suspected murders by arsenic, one in the late 19th century and one by her descendant in the late 20th.
Loved this video. It's such an interesting topic. When you started talking about Cobalt for the greens it reminded me that the dyeing industry is currently having to reformulate all the colors that used blue because the main ingredient (cerulean, i think) no longer exists. The new base color/mineral is called blue bird, if I remembered correctly.
Can confirm. There's an even greater raw ingredient shortage now.
My paternal grandmother died (late 1960-1975) of complications of Cobalt used as treatment for female cancer.
This is quickly becoming my favorite channel on the internets. I would love to hear more about all the other unsafe dyes and materials found in extant garments. Never thought about it before that collecting antiques might come with such risks.
Do you know her friend Abby Cox's channel?
@@feezlfuzzl564 I do, yes. Also an excellent channel.
As a chemist, I loved the analysis in this video!
I loved the salt pun at the end, please keep making puns!
I love that she listed so many sources, setting the best example for inexperienced new uni students like me lol
She has the most graceful hands. Like a Disney princess.
When I was in eighth grade, our science class watched a documentary called “Napoleon’s Wallpaper”, which covered his exile on the island of Saint Helena. The conclusion of the documentary was that the salt ocean air interacted with his arsenic-colored wallpaper and atomized it, which deteriorated his health.
I read a book called "Facts and fallacies" which says that as if it were a fact. However its preface reminds us that facts constantly turn into fallacies with more information. In this case , the 'more information' include the average arsenic levels of a person at the time, and the fact that arsenic gas would not be lethal at the quantities that wallpaper releases it.
"Ask me how I know."
I'm sure there's a story there.
But I'm gonna go google how Canada dealt with arsenic and see how we did :P
And also, do not apologize, that ending was perfect :D
So....how did we (Canada) deal with arsenic?
Imagine that. A government that considered protecting the economy to be more important than protecting people's lives. Plus ça change...
*cries in Albertan*
It didn't help that women's health complaints were often dismissed as "female weakness" or "hysteria" or hypochondria.
I live in a house that was built in 1922. I removed 8 layers of wallpaper from one of my rooms when I was redoing it.
Apparently, the way you redecorated from the 1920s to the 1970s was to put new wallpaper up. Then, in the 70s, you put cheap paneling over that. 🤪
I think I will wear a mask the next time I take any of this down.
Just with the asbestos risk alone...
I love how much of a dark academia/witchy vibes you have in your videos!
Very wise of you to handle the beautiful green bodice they way you're planning on if you expect arsenic. Hopefully the bodice will show up in future vlogs. On a totally different topic, how did the absinthe green colour become so popular in late 1800 and 1900 fashion?
Every time a 'new' colour replicating or outdoing nature appeared in the dull synthetic world, people snatched it up as fast as they could. There was no such thing as garish back then.
Very interesting! This story can be told over and over again for various products, sadly. Asbestos comes to mind. Not banned for use in some developed countries until 2018. It’s in everything. Extremely expensive to test for and get rid of.
This discussion of arsenic took me right back to all my research on asbestos. Unfortunately, none of what you said was surprising.
I’m always amazed that Victorian history sounds identical to modern history. We are still experiencing generalized symptoms to toxic substances that are slow to be regulated or not at all.
There's an incredible British historical true crime channel called BRIEF CASE that I'm obsessed with, and stomach pains is ALWAYS code for arsenic poisoning 🤣
Don't we do this now? How many of our colourful eyeshadows are tainted with heavy metals? Our baby formula with lead? We aren't as clever as we think we are and, in some respects, just as in the dark as the victorians were.
Never be sorry for bad puns! LOL! Fascinating subject!! Thank you for showing so many examples of arsenic greens, by the way. It was very cool to see the wide variety.
While I could sit and watch you sew for hours, I love informative like this even more. My grandfather always said the key to a happy life was to learn something new every day. I definitely learned something new, today. Have a joyous week!
Did anyone else envision Bernadette covering Caesario’s little ears while Nicole talked about guinea pig death 🥺
"...candymaker grabbed white arsenic powder instead of plaster of paris to put in his candy." Have to feel a little leery of that candy shop, good day or bad....