"Toxic dyes" by simi in Dukascopy Forex Community
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Toxic dyes

Some dyes require the deaths of plants or animals. Others kill people. Chrome yellow, when traditionally made, resulted in vomiting, cancer and death. Copper sulphate, used since ancient times as a ''mordant'' to ''stick'' many different pigments to fabric, can corrode the skin and eyes, and rot the liver. One of the most notorious of all dyestuffs was Scheele's Green, developed by the chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in the late eighteenth century and used in fashion and interior decor to brilliant, although often fatal, effect. The problem was arsenic, a crucial ingredient and a deadly poison. A later variant, known as ''Paris Green'', was indeed so toxic that it was sold as rat poison as well as dyestuff. It is thought that Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest generals of all time, was finally slain not by his enemies but by the green wallpaper in his bedroom, which, it is suspected, gave off arsenical fumes. Green sweets are widely treated with suspicion - a folk memory of the days when Paris Green was used, as food colouring. In the mid-nineteenth century, when the truth about the colour's toxicity was finally realised, the shock was severe. As the London Times put it: ''What manufactured article in these days of high pressure civilisation can possibly be trusted if socks are dangerous?''.

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RahmanSL avatar
26 Apr

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