Some of Our Ancestors' Killer Occupations: Part Two of Three

Our first post in this mini-series (published on 12 June 2023) highlighted the chemicals many of our ancestors smeared on and/or ingested as they sought to make themselves look better. This week, we'll focus on how they often endangered their health while working. The hazards of some jobs are obvious. We know that miners of all kinds faced multiple dangers: roof collapse, flooding, and constant inhaling of dust and debris that poisoned their lungs. Our ancestors who worked in factories regularly breathed particles of whatever substance was in the unventilated air, leading to permanent lung damage. The hazards of working in the early years of the industrial age were enormous, as most of the factories were unregulated. But let’s consider jobs that some of our ancestors had that were equally hard on their health but which we don’t often think were all that dangerous. 

For instance, what if your ancestor worked as a whitewasher? “Back in the day,” buildings were routinely whitewashed, both inside and out, to make them look better. In addition, whitewash is mildly antibacterial, so it was often used in dairies and rural cottages. Whitewash is cheaper than paint. It is absorbed by masonry walls and increases their strength. Made from lime that has been mixed with water (slaked lime), when painted onto a surface, whitewash can flake off onto clothing or skin. Sometimes called “caustic lime,” when diluted enough, it’s fairly harmless, but prolonged unprotected exposure can cause severe skin irritation, rashes, chemical burns, and if inhaled, lung damage. If it gets into your eyes, it blinds you. 

As early as 1713, physicians were noticing symptoms of distress in artists, whose paints and pigments were based on heavy metals. By the next century, they were calling it “painter’s colic,” described as a “nervous affection” of the intestines caused by lead absorption. Today, experts believe that several famous artists, notably Michelangelo, Goya, Caravaggio, and perhaps even Van Gogh, likely suffered from lead poisoning, also called saturnism. They inhaled it, rubbed it with their fingers to apply to canvases, and sucked their paint-coated brushes to create fine points. Lead is a slow killer. It damages many organs, including the brain and nervous system, and causes a wide variety of chronic problems, such as gout, hallucinations, depression, fatigue, and stomach pain. It can enter the bloodstream through the skin and can be ingested or inhaled in minute particles of peeling paint.

And not just artists suffered from chronic exposure to lead. Pipes were made of it and carried drinking water to homes and businesses. Those who drank the water, and those who made and installed the pipes, were all affected. Because of its slightly sweet taste, lead was used in the wine-making industry to sweeten the wine, thereby exposing both the consumers and the workers to potential lead poisoning. It was used in pencils that often were chewed or sucked on by children and adults, such as teachers and illustrators, as they worked. The effects of lead poisoning were not widely recognized until late in the nineteenth century, so if you had an ancestor who worked with lead, it’s quite likely they were never diagnosed.

Remember the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland? He was fictional, but his mental condition, based on chronic mercury poisoning, was not. During the nineteenth century, almost everyone wore hats, and many were created by shrinking fur and wool fibers to create a tightly woven fabric in a process called felting. One of the substances used by hat makers was mercury nitrate, which they worked with as a hot solution in rooms that were often very poorly ventilated. The effects of chronic exposure to this metal were both physical and psychological. Weakness and fatigue developed as the central nervous system became affected. When the poison reached the brain, paranoia, depression, irritability, and memory loss were the result. Also potentially suffering from chronic mercury poisoning were dentists, who used mercury in their amalgam fillings. (Ilustration above: John Tenniel, “Alice’s mad tea party,” 1865, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Tenniel-_Alice%27s_mad_tea_party,_colour.jpg)

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Here are a few other occupations your ancestors might have held that exposed them to dangerous levels of poisons:

Match maker: Not the kind who matched up lovers, but mostly women making old-fashioned phosphorous matches. They were exposed to white phosphorous, which they inhaled as vapor leading to horrible jaw, bone, and tooth conditions and brain damage.

Watch dial painters: They came to be called the "Radium Girls." Again, mostly women, these ladies were exposed to high levels of radium as they painted luminous watch dials in the early 1900s. Because the paint glowed, many of the women not only painted the watch dials, but decorated their fingernails and even their teeth, thereby giving themselves dangerous radiation poisoning.

(Image above: "Radium Girls work in a factory of the United States Radium Corporation," 1922, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:All_women_or_girls_using_radium_paint_with_no_protection_or_warnings_in_1922,_from-_USRadiumGirls-Argonne1,ca1922-23-150dpi_(cropped).jpg)

Tanners: Animal hides were tanned or turned into leather in a variety of ways, one of which used chrome. Inhaled chromium vapors can lead to serious respiratory problems, and skin exposure can lead to skin ulcers, damage to nasal passages, and cancer.

Book binders and printers: These people were exposed to a variety of toxins, chief of which were arsenic, chromium, mercury, and lead. In the nineteenth century, when reading novels became fashionable, publishers looked for ways to print large quantities of books cheaply. In so doing, they discovered mixing arsenic and copper with wheat starch paste produced a lovely green color and strengthened cloth bindings. The pigment, called Paris Green or Emerald Green, was also used to color wallpaper and to kill rats in Paris sewers (hence, its name). The more one touched or inhaled the arsenic compound, the sicker one became. Chronic arsenic poisoning causes skin disorders, digestive issues, and some cancers. In high enough doses, it can kill.

Every job comes with hazards, of course, but exposure to toxic chemicals in places where one least expects it is another facet of our ancestors’ lives we might want to spend more time exploring.

More information

“15 Jobs from History that Silently Killed Workers,” by John Titor, History Daily, 26 January 2016. https://historydaily.org/jobs-from-history-that-silently-kill

“Ancestral Occupations and the Impact of the Workplace on Daily Life: An Application of the Science of Toxicology,” by Charles E. Healy, PhD, National Genealogical Society Quarterly, volume 89, number 1, March 2001, pages 6–15. 

“Arsenic and Old Books,” by Megan M. F Everhart, University of Delaware, 15 June 2022. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/june/poison-books-arsenic-bindings-covers-pigments-dyes/

“How Important is Lead Poisoning to Becoming a Legendary Artist?” The Atlantic, Olga Khazan, 25 November 2013. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/how-important-is-lead-poisoning-to-becoming-a-legendary-artist/281734/

“Mad Hatter Syndrome,” The Complementary Medical Association, 2012. https://www.the-cma.org.uk/articles/mad-hatter-syndrome-3358/