Guest Opinion
I found The Name of the Rose (1986), a murder mystery drama based on the novel by Italian author Umberto Eco, fascinating. The plot of the mystery murders was based on (spoiler alert) a toxicology problem and a book.
I want to note here that this movie, along with The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), inspired me to write a movie script and cast, direct, and produce the movie Blood Vow (2018), which you can see on Amazon Prime.
But back to The Name of the Rose—I do not want to spoil the movie for you, so I will just say it has something to do with monks who wrote in a book, and everyone who read the book seemed to die. I was disappointed to learn that this interesting toxicology murder plot was not based on a true story. But I have since learned there is a true story that involves poison books, with the purpose of saving lives rather than ending them.
In 1874, Dr. Robert C. Kedzie created a book entitled Shadows from the Walls of Death: Facts and Inferences Prefacing a Book of Specimens of Arsenical Wall Papers. His book was an advocacy project meant to demonstrate the deadly nature of one product of the Industrial Revolution—mass-produced paint used for wallpaper and fabric. The book was a collection of different types of wallpaper featuring the vivid pigment known as Scheele’s Green. Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele invented the copper arsenite pigment that produced rich greens, yellows, and violets at an affordable price. Kedzie believed that the slow descent into madness experienced by those confined to bedrest was due to the chronic inhalation of dust from the arsenic-laden wallpaper in their bedrooms.
Dr. R. M. Kedzie, who served on the Michigan Board of Health in the 1870s, explained his unique strategy for raising awareness in the preface to Shadows from the Walls of Death. Originally printed in an edition of one hundred copies, only a half-dozen remain because recipients, fearing the danger, destroyed their copies. Ironically, the book was contaminated by the very substance it condemned. To eradicate the poison, Kedzie chose to preserve its vehicle.
“[T]o call attention to this source of danger, and to assist persons in detecting these dangerous colors in wall paper, the State Board of Health directed me to prepare specimen books of such dangerous wall papers… The wall papers in this book all contain arsenic.”
Kedzie produced 100 copies of these books and sent them to libraries. Once recipients realized the deadly potential of the books, most were destroyed. The last surviving copy was not sealed until 1998, and the four remaining copies are sealed from public access. Fortunately, the book can still be viewed through a digital copy.
The Mechanism of Copper Arsenite Poisoning
Arsenic is especially dangerous because it bioaccumulates in the body, meaning it is not readily eliminated but instead is stored and gradually accumulates until it reaches toxic or even deadly levels. Its toxicological mechanism is to interfere with the production of ATP, the primary energy source for cells, effectively shutting down normal cellular function. The result is damage to the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, eventually leading to death. If you want to read more about the often gruesome effects of arsenic poisoning, there are numerous historical accounts available.
According to an environmental consulting firm in the United Kingdom, Victorian-era wallpaper can, in rare cases, produce arsine gas—the most toxic form of arsenic—through the action of certain molds:
“In some rare cases, specific mould species that grow on damp wallpaper can metabolise arsenic compounds into arsine gas, a colourless, highly toxic vapour. This process was first identified in 1891 by the Italian chemist Bartolomeo Gosio, who demonstrated that the combination of arsenic pigments and mould growth could generate a poisonous gas capable of causing severe illness or death. Although such conditions are uncommon in modern buildings, poorly ventilated or water-damaged interiors containing historic wallpapers can still create a comparable risk environment.”
The deaths of four children in Great Britain were initially diagnosed as diphtheria but were eventually attributed to the newly installed green wallpaper in their nursery.
Final Thoughts
When major public health exposures like this one—both the wallpapers themselves and the book produced by Kedzie—would today result in federal regulation, it was still too early in our administrative law history for such risks to be addressed.
Scheele’s Green came under scrutiny for its deadly properties by 1860 and was largely phased out by 1900. Air quality was not federally regulated until 1955, and consumer products such as wallpaper were not regulated until 1972. Even then, those regulations were largely limited to recalls of unsafe products. Indoor air quality is still not comprehensively regulated by the federal government. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates the removal of lead paint, it does not regulate the removal of arsenic-laden wallpaper.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, the risks posed by chemicals and heavy metals were still being discovered. Contaminated vaccines for children led to passage of the Biologics Control Act of 1901, followed by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1906 and the eventual creation of the FDA. Thus, the period during which deadly wallpaper was manufactured and installed ended before institutions existed to identify and protect the public from such hazards. The tort litigation system for individuals harmed by defective products was one mechanism that helped protect the public from these risks.
If wallpaper containing copper arsenite were introduced today, it would be regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which requires new chemicals, such as copper arsenite, to undergo scientific safety testing before entering the marketplace. Because copper arsenite has also been used as a pesticide, it would additionally be regulated under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), although that application extends beyond wallpaper.
However, the continued existence of these wallpapers in Victorian-era homes remains a genuine public health risk and falls into a regulatory gap that could have fatal consequences. Buyers of older homes are often left with the age-old property doctrine of buyer beware. Depending on state law, sellers may have a duty to disclose hazardous defects, but disclosure requirements vary considerably. As a result, the tort system remains the principal mechanism for addressing injuries caused by these hazards. Unfortunately, because tort claims generally arise only after harm has occurred, they may provide little protection when the injury is irreversible—or fatal.
To read more articles by Professor Sutton go to: https://profvictoria.substack.com/
Professor Victoria Sutton (Lumbee) is a law professor on the faculty of Texas Tech University. In 2005, Sutton became a founding member of the National Congress of American Indians, Policy Advisory Board to the NCAI Policy Center, positioning the Native American community to act and lead on policy issues affecting Indigenous communities in the United States.
