The Truth About Arsenic in the Victorian Era

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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[bettievw]

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.

[carolyncoulter]

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.

[nikkicafeina]

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.

[beccar]

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

[Jeanettecraftsmoxie]

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.

[CocoTheSpookyLibrarian]

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"

[elizabethanne]

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.

[lnorlnor]

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.

[catzkeet]

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.

[DrinkYourNailPolish]

I feel like this should be a collab with ask a mortician.

[mondrache]

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

[jenhaynes]

'Used arsenic instead of plaster of Paris' in candy... And not an eyebrow was raised at either of those as a food Great video as always! 👍

[narnigrin]

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).

[FabulousFrostine]

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...

[kimkimeree]

“That was a terrible ending.”
I audibly answer while giggling, “no it was great!”

[amb]

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!

[snowleopardlady]

"Just don't go licking wood"
Me, remembering in full imax detail, how I and fellow 7 yr olds would eat dirt: 👀👀👀

[turtlellama]

"Arsenic was in more things than you'd think"

Me, violently intolerant to corn syrup: I dunno, I can think of a lot

[LeonieShi]

Yeah, William Morris owned shares in arsenic mines here in the UK. So he definitely had ulterior motives for saying his products were safe.

[adedow]

Iocaine power: odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in ... nevermind