Scheele's Green, the Color of Fake Foliage and Death

[packman]

Article about being poisoned by the green color in food, clothing, and wallpaper


Green wallpaper was ... wildly popular at the time (late 1800's), and as the Romantic movement began to gain steam, it became even more fashionable to deck your parlor or drawing room in scenes of stylized strawberry vines and blowsy-headed green tulips. The designer-artist-poet-activist-novelist William Morris (an earlier adopter of the multihyphenate lifestyle and one of the major figures of the British Arts and Crafts Movement) was highly skeptical of claims that arsenic could be dangerous. But as the heir to a copper mine (which produced arsenic dust as a byproduct of mining activity), he would be. When doctors told him that the miners were suffering from arsenic poisoning, he retorted that they “were bitten by witch fever” (i.e., were total quacks). This was slightly ironic because Morris actively campaigned for safer working conditions for textile manufacturers, and he felt strongly about using organic dyes, including cochineal, kermes, and rose madder. Yet unlike those sweet rosy hues, there wasn’t an organic dye that could replace the vivid appeal of copper-based greens, and so he continued to use both Scheele’s green and Paris green (a similar shade that was more lightfast) in his hugely popular line of wall coverings, rugs, and textiles.




https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/05/02/scheeles-green-the-color-of-fake-foliage-and-death/

[saidsimplesimon]

1. death or insanity in chemical dyes

I often wonder about the fate of Van Gogh. Sure, he was an alcoholic, prone to mental illness.

[pansypoo53219]

2. PBS had a british series about deadly household stuff. this green killed tons of people.

william morris owned a big arsenic mine.