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Similarly, arsenical bronze (copper + arsenic) was common before tin started to be used, and I've often wondered how common arsenic poisoning was in the copper
by cmrdporcupine 2y ago
Similarly, arsenical bronze (copper + arsenic) was common before tin started to be used, and I've often wondered how common arsenic poisoning was in the copper age / early bronze age.
When we think of the nastiness of industry, it's often industrial 19th century Britain and so on, but some of these villages (often quite remote) back then were full on industrial sites with massive smelting operations and the entire population including children engaged in mining and smithing and then exporting.
- davidgay 2y agoRe arsenic poisoning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus#:~:text=In%20the%20Iliad%2018.371%2C%20it,by%20arsenic%20exposure%20from%20metalworking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus#:~:text=In%20the%20....
- agumonkey 2y agoA repair guy taught me recently that up until the 40s cadmium was used as a layer on some metallic devices, then people realized it was toxic. Funny.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoI mean, I can do better (worse). Up until .. the 60s? 70s? They used to literally spray lead-arsenate on apple orchards as a pesticide. Incredibly effective one, too. Just that unfortunate thing of poisoning the top soil forever. A lot of those old apple orchards have had other things done with them since. Which is kind of scary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_hydrogen_arsenate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_hydrogen_arsenate "US EPA banned use of lead arsenate on food crops in 1988."
- userbinator 2y agoStill widely used in military/aerospace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plating#Cadmium_plating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plating#Cadmium_plating
- iSnow 2y agoAlso in pigments. There still has to be lots and lots of old devices, paint in houses, glass ware etc. around that derive their color from Cadmium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_pigments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmium_pigments
- ahazred8ta 2y ago"Did arsenic poisoning make gods limp?" Apparently going lame was an occupational hazard. https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/03/31/4206279.htm https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/03/31/4206279.h... It was common from 4000 BC to 2000 BC. Ötzi the iceman lived near a copper-arsenic forge site. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenical_bronze#Arsenical_bronze,_sites_and_civilisations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenical_bronze#Arsenical_bro...
- eru 2y agoYes, 19th century Britain was already well on its way out of the nastiness. And the first industrial revolution was already over.
- AngryData 2y agoI don't know much about Britain's historical usage of bronze alloys, but I would be surprised if Britain used all that much arsenic bronze at all because Cornwall has some of of the largest and oldest tin mines in the world. But of course mining and metal processing in general has tons of nasty things besides just arsenic.
- perihelions 2y agoThere's a new study that suggests, actually not so much: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42513706 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42513706 ("Ancient copper industry in King Solomon's mines did not pollute environment") - "...We took hundreds of soil samples from both sites for chemical analyses, creating high-resolution maps of heavy metal presence in the region. We found that pollution levels at the Timna copper mining sites are extremely low and confined to the locations of the ancient smelting furnaces. [...] The new study contradicts a series of papers published since the 1990s about pollution caused allegedly by the ancient copper industry."
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoInteresting. Thanks