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The reason? The binding of the emerald green covers may contain arsenic.
Handling the books would likely cause only minor damage. Now they have been removed for further analysis, the library announces.
During the Victorian era, green pigments containing arsenic were used to color the bindings.
Since 2019, researchers at the University of Delaware have tested the presence of heavy metals in hundreds of book covers. A list of potentially dangerous volumes has been drawn up as part of the “Poison Book Project”.
The National Library of France has a collection of more than 16 million titles – of which four were on the list.
