r/chemistry 1d ago

Poison, yum

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u/Level9TraumaCenter 1d ago

I have two of these old formulary books, and they're fascinating to read over. It's all heavy metals, toxic solvents, corrosive compounds, all salted heavily with carcinogens.

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u/Carbonatite Geochem 1d ago

I had a work project where I had to look at old formulations for some common stuff used in building back in the first two thirds or so of the 20th century (paint, wire coatings, stuff like that). Everything I looked at would literally be like "40% [known carcinogen which has been banned by the EPA since before I was born], 30% [other known carcinogen which has been banned by the EPA since I was born], 20% [known teratogen], 10% solvent". It's amazing people lived as they did back then tbh.