
When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases - pseudolus
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-great-book-scare-people-worried-contaminated-books-could-spread-disease-180972967/
======
Jun8
Here’s information from NHS on how long some viruses can live outside the
body: [https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/infections/how-
lo...](https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/infections/how-long-do-
bacteria-and-viruses-live-outside-the-body/), I think this indicates that (1)
yes, viruses can, in principle, be transmitted through books, (2) time window
for this is rather small, and (3) probability of infection is further reduced
since we usually just handle the book and not, e.g. lick pages (so there might
be greater probability for young children’s books). Altogether, looks like the
danger level is on par with interacting with the regular outside world, e.g.
door handles, staircase railings.

Conceivably, however, books could be a suitable attack vector for deliberate
contamination with toxic substances and bacteria pores.

Famous literary example is the poisoned copy of Aristotle’s Second _Poetics_
in the _Name of the Rose_
([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose))

~~~
emeraldd
You don't need to go to fiction to find toxic books. Paris
green([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_green#Uses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_green#Uses))
was at one time used heavily in a large number of seemingly innocuous
applications, including book covers.

[https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-
poisonou...](https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-three-poisonous-
books-in-our-university-library-98358)

------
WillPostForFood
The modern version of this scare (possibly more real) is bedbugs in library
books. Our local library had to close for a few days recently due to a bed bug
infestation. It is 50% library, 50% homeless shelter, unfortunately.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/garden/bedbugs-hitch-a-
ri...](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/garden/bedbugs-hitch-a-ride-on-
library-books.html)

~~~
testfoobar
Had them in our library as well - also suspected to be from the homeless folks
who go in and out.

Public libraries serving as defacto shelters is beyond their designed and
intended use. This is a problem in many public space. Private spaces like
shopping malls can remove people. How does a public library decide who to
remove?

~~~
sascha_sl
How about instead of wondering how to evict the homeless you tackle the issue
of homelessness. This is far from a hard problem to solve with a bit of wealth
redistribution.

~~~
gambiting
If you are the person in charge of running the library your job isn't to
"solve the issue of homelessness", nor have you the authority to do "a bit of
wealth redistribution" \- your job is to make sure all users of the public
library are safe and don't get random bugs from just borrowing books - which
means stopping the source of the bugs from coming in in the first place.

~~~
sascha_sl
Systemic issues need larger-scoped solutions. "cleaning" the library is just
masking up the problem so people that are well off can pretend homelessness
doesn't exist and isn't a systemic issue and they're definitely not part of
the problem just let me get a book from the public library.

~~~
paulryanrogers
There is also the problem of homed people having bed bugs too. Lower income
school districts have to deal with that as well. Hopefully both problems
(everyone's bedbugs and homelessness) can be solved without neglecting the
other.

------
hairytrog
Spread of disease is unavoidable in a society of public restrooms and shared
infrastructure. Sick people contaminate their environment at points of contact
like handles, toilet seats, keyboards, the air around them, etc. The damages
caused by sick people at work are poorly estimated at $150B
([https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11323-cost-of-coming-to-
wo...](https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11323-cost-of-coming-to-work-
sick.html)).

I could imagine micro terrorists or psychos who actively try to spread
disease. Sick people who go to work do the same thing, just without evil
intentions. It would be relatively easy to cultivate bacteria or viruses and
spread them across the human environment.

Examples:

\- Go to the airport and mist some Norovirus around

\- Enter a couple stalls and drip some E-Coli on the seats or contaminate a
whole role of toilet paper or drying paper

\- Contaminate a few ketchup bottles at a restaurant or mist the silverware
bucket

It would be extremely difficult to pinpoint these people as the damage is
anonymous, random, and highly distributed. Damages could dwarf any previous
terrorist attack or serial killer. It's likely that such people exist.

~~~
hairytrog
Preventative measures: quarantined society, minimized travel and human
contact, private or limited use facilities, increased isolation, enhanced and
more frequent sanitation at point of use, and enhanced air treatment.

Sanitation is currently done by chemical (Clorox), heat (autoclave or flame),
light (UV, X-Ray, gamma), filtration, or pressure treatment. These are highly
functional, especially when used in tandem.

~~~
labawi
> quarantined society, minimized travel ...

Views of a dystopian world?

------
vallismortis
I have a library of old (1870's-1930's) books on bacterial and fungal
taxonomy, and I'm cautious not to breathe too deeply when I handle some of
them. Many of these may have been used in non-sterile microbiology labs,
likely including my copy of A Manual of Tropical Diseases (signed by Catellani
himself). Bacterial spores (e.g., Bacillus, can survive in dehydrated states
indefinitely). Some of the notes in margins, covers, bookplates and stamps
show snapshots of where these have been.

------
billfruit
So can diseases be spread through contaminated books or not? the article
seemingly does not make a clear statement either way.

~~~
johnnycab
I would have thought that the headline alone would be sufficient enough to
provide that answer. In order to remove any further doubt, millions of books
are still in circulation, after more than a century since the scare/panic.
This should be considered as a fact that books are not infectious ─ not in the
medical sense, at least.

A Kindle is probably likely to harbour more germs than an average book.
Furthermore, the chemistry of books possibly does not allow harmful organisms
to survive for too long.

[https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/why-do-books-smell-so-
good...](https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/why-do-books-smell-so-good.html)

[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/07/the-smell-
of-o...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/07/the-smell-of-old-books-
science-libraries)

~~~
billfruit
Yes, but instead of categorically starting it, the article merely implies it,
giving the reader some doubt. But I suppose there is still some possibility
that books could be contaminated with disease causing microbes/ parasites or
even harmful chemicals.

~~~
devoply
Would be easy enough to sanitize using radiation if you really wanted to. Fact
is humans are resistant to many things.

------
ebg13
And then of course there is Anthrax dust.
[http://lepo.it.da.ut.ee/~cect/teoreetiline%20seminar%2001.10...](http://lepo.it.da.ut.ee/~cect/teoreetiline%20seminar%2001.10.2013/Steedman_2001.pdf)

------
jacobkg
My son is 4 and we get a lot of kids books out of the library. I do wonder
occasionally whether he can catch a cold from the books since kids are sick
quite a lot and they like to put their hands in their mouths, etc

~~~
orev
The lifetime of most common viruses once they are outside The body is measured
in minutes, so you should be fine.

~~~
CamperBob2
More to the point, how are you going to transmit viruses without a liquid
medium of some kind? (Any virologists out there? Does that ever happen?)

A very small number of viral particles isn't usually enough to cause disease,
as I understand it, and I definitely don't see how you'll pick up enough from
dry paper to become sick. If that sort of thing were possible, people would be
getting diseases like warts and herpes from the toilet paper in public
restrooms. Library books would be pretty far down my list of concerns.

------
misterman101
In Chinese libraries there are sanitization boxes that everyone runs their
books through after check out.

Seemed like it was just UV, though I didn't ask.

------
p2t2p
Stay out of the shadows ;-)

------
whenanother
lawl, so another public resource being demonized? this like those posts
regarding the trouble of public transportation. only the stupidest people will
buy into these kind of social media brainwashing. anything the wealthy do not
use will be demonized.

~~~
reaperducer
_only the stupidest people will buy into these kind of social media
brainwashing._

Only the stupidest people will not determine from the article, or at least
infer from the headline, that this panic was over a hundred years ago.

Ain't no hubris like tech bubble hubris.

