By Staff Writer: Jerri Clewis
When it comes to disastrous, toxic and highly destructive products, one of the more notorious were, and sometimes still are, dyes. Think about it. Dyes end up in clothing, food, decorations and almost every other facet of life. All it takes is one dangerous ingredient to place a person’s health at risk.
Of the most haunting of these cases was “Scheele’s Green.” In 1775, the Swedish chemist Karl Scheele created a pigment that became a sensational success due to its brilliant and almost fade-resistant green color, according to the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art.
There was only one small problem. The pigment contained copper arsenite.
Contact with arsenic can cause skin lesions, vomiting, diarrhea and even cancer. But that knowledge came later, only after the cheap and easy-to-make color took over the markets and replaced other shades of green. Through the end of the 19th century, Scheele’s Green helped to color clothing, wallpaper, toys, candles, and more. All the while, people were oblivious to its dangers.
People became ill just by wearing dyed gloves and socks, and children were documented as “wasting away” in green rooms, according to Artists Network. Women wearing green dresses allegedly swooned in droves, falling victim to this “invisible killer”. A historic rumor even says that the green wallpaper in Napoleon’s bedroom on St. Helena Island showed traces of Scheele’s Green, which some suspect may have contributed to his death.
Scheele apparently knew of the poisonous nature of his pigment, but he also understood that his dye was unlike any others and could revolutionize the markets. He wasn’t wrong. Even once the truth reached the public, the hue was so popular that various products still used it.
The tides began to turn as high-profile cases brought attention to the dangers of arsenic.
One became quite the scandal. In an incident known as the Bradford Sweets Poisoning, 21 people died after eating sweets accidentally made with arsenic in 1858, according to Historic UK. Another
200 people fell seriously ill from the peppermint “humbugs” that each contained enough arsenic to kill two people.
People were rightly horrified, and within ten years, UK legislators started passing new legislation to prevent further tragedies. The UK Pharmacy Act of 1868 was one of the bigger changes, and it introduced firmer regulations regarding the handling and selling of named poisons and medicines. Thanks to such steps, arsenic became more and more controlled by the 1900s.
It’s just a shame it took so long for legislators to step in.