Toxic Chemicals Found on old books

AI Thread Summary
Recent discussions highlight concerns regarding the presence of toxic dyes and heavy metals in historical books, as evidenced by a study utilizing three spectroscopic techniques: X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to detect arsenic and other heavy metals, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to measure their concentrations, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify pigment molecules. Notably, this marks the first application of XRD in assessing books for toxic substances. The implications of these findings are significant for libraries and researchers, especially given the historical value of many old books that may contain hazardous materials. The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by institutions like the John Rylands Library and Chetham's Library in managing these risks, particularly during handling and cleaning processes that could release harmful particles. While the act of licking books is rare, the potential for exposure increases with frequent handling, raising concerns for workers who interact with these materials regularly.
pinball1970
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TL;DR Summary
The American Chemical Society report that dangerous chemicals have been isolated from books room 19th and early 20th century.
From the article in phys org. today.

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-evidence-stacks-poisonous-toxic-dyes.html

"The Lipscomb book project, the team used three spectroscopic techniques:

XRF to qualitatively check whether arsenic or other heavy metals were present in any of the book covers.
Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) to determine the concentration of those metals.
X-ray diffraction (XRD) to identify the pigment molecules that contain those metals.
Although XRD has been previously used to examine paintings and wallpaper, this is the first time it has been used to check for poison in books, Ais says. The XRD testing is being done in collaboration with Janet Macdonald at Vanderbilt University."

This piqued my interest because industry has been cleaning up regarding dangerous chemistry with fairly recent legislation like REACh 2007 https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach/understanding-reach and NGOs with things like DETOX 2011
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/publication/17612/destination-zero/

So items that are already out there but have historical value like old, rare and valuable books, pose a problem.

Especially to handlers, researchers and Librarians.

John Rylands Library established 1900, Portico 1806 and Chetham's library 1653 will have a few candidates I would have thought, that is just Manchester!
 
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Is ythios really a problem? How many people lick old books?
 
Vanadium 50 said:
Is ythios really a problem? How many people lick old books?
Not many if you discount you discount licking your finger to turn a page...

It is moving these things around that is the problem. Central library moved most of its books while they did regeneration works.

Also trying to clean them, read them involves handling them and releasing particles.
Probably not so much for me walking through, taking a few images but possibly for a worker who spends 40 hours a week with them.
 

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