
Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly - prismatic
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/victorian-wallpaper-got-its-gaudy-colors-poison-180962709/?no-ist
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pnathan
This is a very interesting treatment of the famous paint:

[http://rdemaree.com/blogs/emerald-green-the-deadly-
pigment-a...](http://rdemaree.com/blogs/emerald-green-the-deadly-pigment-and-
its-handling-characteristics-.html)

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magic_beans
This article is no better than a back-cover summary of " Bitten By Witch
Fever".

Such a great and intriguing topic, and such a stilted article :/

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hammock
And in today's wallpaper (and paint, and wall construction, etc), VOCs are
making people sick. And there are plenty of people who say it isn't harmful.

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radicaldreamer
The abundance of VOCs in our indoor environments, especially offices, is one
of the more serious public health issues currently. Most offices/people are
not aware of the problem and it isn't even measured regularly. Symptoms and
issues are hard to link because they can vary from person to person, take a
while to develop.

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menacingly
It might be true, but isn't that also the perfect BS argument? If I said that
about lettuce it'd be really hard to dispute.

Even mortality itself varies from person to person and takes a while to
develop

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iamatworknow
There's always something that's going to be harmful to us in our man-made
environment. It's just a matter of degree. If it's not radium watch dials or
arsenic paint, it's asbestos or lead paint, or radon gas, or, triclosan soap,
or plastic microbeads, or whatever else.

That's not to say people shouldn't be concerned or strive to improve even
more, but we're better now than we ever have been in any time in our history.
The "product containing _x_ will kill you and your children!" thing just gets
tiring after a while.

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timthorn
The BBC produced an hour long documentary about the perils of Victorian
domestic life a year or so back:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03l7nl8](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03l7nl8)

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elevensies
The title is a nice pun:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036613/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036613/)

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cmarschner
For an entertaining, yet thoroughly researched account of the history of the
home (including the story of arsenic and lead in paints), see Bill Bryson: At
Home.

