Poison Book Project

This piqued my curiosity and is something well outside of my normal hobbies&#x2F;interests (conservation of old books or antiques, physical library spaces in general, etc), so I was curious who started it. Turns out the answer is Dr Melissa Tedone - Lab Head for Books &amp; Library Materials Conservation at Winterthur Museum.<p>She had been reading a book about arsenic-containing wallpapers in Victorian-era England, and connected mental dots while examining a book entered into the museum with a microscope. Pretty fascinating stuff: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6jH1niN3NpU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6jH1niN3NpU</a> the backstory starts around the ~1:40 mark

I once took a course called &quot;poisonous books&quot;, a survey of literature throughout history considered &quot;dangerous&quot; due to the ideas presented. This is far more literal!!

No doubt considered quite useful at the time for its naturally insecticidal properties...<p>Librarians might be exposed more, and the information on the page has a hint of MSDS-like paranoia, but I wonder how toxic it is in practice to the individual who may have a few of these on a shelf somewhere.

&quot;Klaatu Barada Nikto&quot;