If books could kill … scientists in Denmark have found high levels of arsenic in three books from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Experts from the University of Southern Denmark made the startling discovery when they were studying fragments of medieval manuscripts that were used to bind the books.
Kaare Lund Rasmussen, an associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark, told Fox News that after the Danish Reformation in 1536 A.D. many Catholic books were destroyed. “Some were burned, some were thrown out,” he told Fox News, via email, noting that some parchments were also re-used to bind ‘new’ books from the 1500s and the 1600s.
The researchers wanted to identify the Latin texts used, or at least read some of the content, according to a column in ‘The Conversation’ by Rasmussen and Jacob Povl Holck, a research librarian at the university.
“We were looking for writing which shows up as ink and may contain copper or iron or calcium,” he added. “However, the moment we put the X-ray beam on the green surface we saw the fantastic high amounts of arsenic.”
Scientists used micro X-ray fluorescence technology, which is widely used to analyze the chemical properties of pottery and paintings. This analysis revealed that the green pigment on the books’ covers is arsenic.
The library is storing the poisonous volumes in separate cardboard boxes with safety labels in a ventilated cabinet, according to Rasmussen and Holck.
The experts say that the books highlight the potential risks posed by some older tomes.
“The next step is to warn librarians and readers of old books to wear protective gloves, and to advise libraries to store any green painted old books in a dry, dark environment out of harm’s way of people inhaling the air above the books,” Rasmussen told Fox News.
-foxnews.com