Antique books bound in linen While their vibrant colors and scents offer a delightful feast, there may be a toxic past lurking behind these books.

In addition If you think it’s psychological, you’re wrong. Chemical self.

Synthetic, toxic dyes were once used instead of natural dyes to obtain vibrant and bright colors for books.

Arsenic provides fascinating green and purple hues; aniline was preferred for deep black and purple colors. Other heavy metals were used to increase the durability of paints. Although they sound harmless, these are actually quite toxic substances. In addition, the workers who work in the factories where these paints are produced, due to health problems They even lost their lives.

Special These books were produced during the Victorian period Even though they are out of fashion now, they can still be very popular all over the world under the “vintage” fashion. Especially if you are a lover of old books, you may be at great risk. So where does that come from? these books are “poisonous”?

in 2019 Winterthur Museum, When he came across a book with arsenic paint on it, he started a project called the Poison Book Project to identify the books.

As a result of the study, which used X-ray fluorescence and other advanced techniques, lead and chromium levels in some books were found to be above safe limits.

Especially what we all love Vincent van Gogh It turned out that the lead(II) chromate he used for the yellow color in the Sunflowers series was also found in large quantities in the books. This actually shows that in almost many works we can suffer from toxic dyes.

If you come across antique books while visiting a second-hand bookstore, Avoid too much contact with the pages of books You can protect yourself from possible consequences.

Those who work with books or in libraries are particularly at risk of coming into contact with these toxic dyes. To turn a page Don’t lick your fingersRemember, this is one of the most important ways to prevent these effects!

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