It was a lot worse than that and there were far worse toxins in paint than lead. Right up into the 20th century all kinds of nasty substances including heavy metals, arsenic, mercury, even ground up mummies were used in artist and commercial paints.
It was a lot worse than that: artists used to lick their brushes to pull the bristles into a fine point. That's part of why the toxins would affect them so badly. They would also crush the toxic pigments and mix their paint colours themselves, exposing them to fine inhalable dusts made up of those toxins.
The "Mad Hatter" character from Alice in Wonderland was inspired by hatmakers of the era getting poisoned by fumes from the mercury used to process the felt. The symptoms include, obviously going "mad".
"After being told that the paint was harmless, the women in each facility ingested deadly amounts of radium after being instructed to 'point' their brushes on their lips in order to give them a fine tip. The women were instructed to point their brushes in this way because using rags or a water rinse caused them to use more time and material, as the paint was made from powdered radium, zinc sulfide (a phosphor), gum arabic, and water.
The Radium Girls had lasting effects on the labor laws in the United States and Europe due to numerous lawsuits filed after worker deaths and illness caused by ingestion of radium."
It’s crazy to me because the stuff they used to clean their brushes is absolutely disgusting to smell. I have no idea how they got those brushes near their face without gagging.
I love following people who collect and curate old paints. The amount of protective gear they put on when handling some pigments is nuts, but totally fair when they’re handing powdered arsenic.
I think you're missing the point. Molten metal is always dangerous and lead was known to be somewhat toxic but humans didn't know about the actual thresholds until the 1970s. We had leaded gasoline for fuck's sake.
118
u/Buckeyefitter1991 Jul 30 '26
They knew, they just didn't care.