Ghana begins program to trace cocoa as EU law combating deforestation looms

Euractiv.com with Reuters

Executive Vice President of the European Commission for An Economy that Works for People and European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis delivers the opening speech at the 5th World Conference on Cocoa, organised by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) in Brussels, Belgium, 22 April 2024. 

[EPA-EFE/OLIVIER MATTHYS]

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Ghana is piloting a system that traces cocoa beans from farm to port as it gears up for a new EU law banning the import of commodities linked to deforestation, a government official said on Thursday (5 September).

The landmark new law, which could in time reshape global commodity markets, comes into effect end of December.

It requires EU importers of coffee, cocoa, soy, palm, timber, beef and rubber to prove their supply chains are not contributing to deforestation anywhere in the world, or be fined up to 4% of their turnover.

“We have polygon-mapped all the cocoa in Ghana, established an end-to-end traceability system and successfully piloted (it),” Michael Amoah, from Ghanaian cocoa regulator Cocobod, told a webinar organised by environmental non-profit groups Fern and Mighty Earth.

Gearing up to comply with the new EU law is critical for Ghana. About 60% of the cocoa the country grows is exported to the EU and the industry employs about 17% of Ghana’s working population.

Nearly all the farmers growing cocoa in Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, are smallholders based in remote rural regions who, without government support, might struggle to comply with the law’s requirements.

These include providing buyers of their goods with geolocation co-ordinates that prove their farms are not located on land deforested after 2020.

“We are hoping what we’ve done will enable us to capture a greater percent of the EU market,” said Amoah.

Some commodity producers from Indonesia to Brazil have criticised the EU law, saying it is protectionist and could end up excluding vulnerable, small-scale farmers from accessing the bloc’s lucrative market.

Deforestation is the second leading cause of catastrophic climate change after the burning of fossil fuels.

WAIT, WHAT?!

Outrage grows in Japan over topless medical exams in schools

The lack of a unified policy has left the decision to individual schools and local authorities, some of which require students to remove their tops, while others allow them to stay clothed. — Picture from X/SilentMangaComm

By Malay Mail
Friday, 06 Sep 2024

TOKYO, Sept 6 — Japanese parents and campaigners are expressing outrage over the requirement for students to strip to the waist during routine school health exams, with many calling for an end to the practice.

The exams, which involve both boys and girls as young as five and up to 18 years old, have sparked widespread discomfort and, in some cases, trauma among students, according to a report published in The Guardian today.

“My chest was completely exposed, and I felt embarrassed,” a 13-year-old girl shared, describing her experience at a middle school health checkup. Another student expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “I didn’t want to do it, but I couldn’t say no.”

The lack of a unified policy has left the decision to individual schools and local authorities, some of which require students to remove their tops, while others allow them to stay clothed.

However, in some regions, students, including those in senior high schools, are still asked to remove their shirts and bras during the examinations.

Parents and teachers are increasingly voicing their concerns.

One poll revealed that 95.5 per cent of middle school students were uncomfortable with removing their clothes for the exams.

“The health exams can have serious repercussions for children,” said Akiyo Tanaka, a city councillor, noting that many students continue to experience trauma into adulthood.

Despite this, officials from the Japan Medical Association (JMA) and education authorities have been reluctant to change the practice.

Doctors, often male, have argued that a topless examination is essential for detecting health conditions such as heart irregularities and skin issues.

However, many disagree.

Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases, said there is no strong medical basis for such a practice, stating, “It might slightly improve the sound of the heartbeat, but it does not significantly benefit the children’s health.”

Some regions, such as Kyoto, have begun to allow students to remain partially clothed during exams, with others expected to follow suit.

Parents, like Chiyoko Suda, whose daughter underwent the exam semi-naked, remain frustrated. “It’s awful for these girls to have to remove their clothes in front of strangers,” she said.

While the Japanese education ministry has issued guidelines asking schools to consider students’ privacy, including allowing them to wear PE kits, the implementation remains inconsistent.

Campaigners continue to push for a more comprehensive national policy that respects children’s dignity.

DOCTORS STRIKE

South Korea ready to revise contentious medical school admissions plan, officials say

Doctors protest during a rally against government plans to increase medical school admissions and healthcare reform in Seoul, on June 18. 

Sep 06, 2024

SEOUL - South Korea's presidential office said on Sept 6 it was open to revising a plan to increase medical school admissions, which has triggered months of protests by doctors nationwide.

“The discussion on medical school quotas can start from scratch if the medical community presents a reasonable suggestion,” the office said in a statement, in which it also urged the medical community to discuss options.

The government has said the plan will not be revoked.

Thousands of trainee doctors, including interns and resident doctors, walked off the job in February to protest the plan to increase medical student numbers by 2,000 a year starting 2025 to address what authorities project will be a severe shortage of medical professionals.

South Korea is one of the world’s fastest ageing societies.

Earlier in 2024, medical schools finalised their admission quotas for 2025 which was up nearly 1,500 compared to the previous year.

According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Sept 6, more than half of those polled support increasing medical school admissions in 2025.

But 64 per cent of those polled also said the government was poorly handling the situation, and that President Yoon Suk-yeol’s disapproval rating was at 67 per cent.

The health ministry earlier this week said it was deploying military doctors to meet the shortage of medical staff but disputed a warning by some physicians that the system was on the verge of collapse. REUTERS

UK

Water firm announces investment to cut discharges

they had failed to adequately invest in and maintain their networks, leading to repeated releases of raw sewage into the country’s waterways.

David Mckenna
BBC News

Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water said it is spending £3.4m to reduce discharges to the River Humber


Yorkshire Water said it is investing £3.4m to improve and upgrade storm overflows in two parts of East Yorkshire.

The projects, in Brough and North Ferriby, are part of the firm's £180m investment to reduce discharges and improve water quality in the region.

A spokesperson for the company said it would reduce discharges to the River Humber.

The firm is one of three facing sanctions from the industry regulator, alongside Thames Water and Northumbrian Water, over historic sewage spills.


Commenting on the double scheme, project manager Lumi Ajayi said: “These important upgrades to the storm overflows will prevent infiltration from the Humber and reduce storm discharges and overflows into the estuary during periods of prolonged or heavy rainfall."

It was announced in August that an investigation by Ofwat found that on average Yorkshire Water discharged untreated wastewater into the region's rivers for seven hours a day in 2023, with almost half of its storm overflows found to be in breach of regulations.

It found they had failed to adequately invest in and maintain their networks, leading to repeated releases of raw sewage into the country’s waterways.

Yorkshire Water said it took its "responsibility to protect the environment very seriously".

Thames Water boss 'untroubled' by prison threat - and says he can save company

Chris Weston told Sky News he is confident he can turn around the troubled company, which faces running out of cash in months if it cannot raise fresh equity.

Paul Kelso
Business correspondent @pkelso
Thursday 5 September 2024 
0:53

The chief executive of Thames Water has insisted he can rescue the debt-laden utility, which faces running out of cash in months if it cannot raise fresh equity.

Speaking after the environment secretary announced new legislation threatening water company bosses with jail alongside a review of the industry, Mr Weston told Sky News he was untroubled by the threat of prosecution, and confident he can turn around the troubled company.

"I need to digest what the secretary of state said today, I am completely aligned with what he's trying to do in cleaning up the rivers," he said.

"I'm focused, like he is, on getting investment and I will work with the secretary of state to do that. I am very encouraged by the tone I heard and I will work with him to try to do what he's outlined to do."

Asked directly if he could save Thames Water, he said: "I can save it."

With around £18bn of debt and cash reserves only until next May, Mr Weston is racing to raise fresh investment after existing shareholders withdrew plans for £3.5bn of fresh equity.



Last week the company asked regulator Ofwat to allow it to increase customer bills by more than 50% in exchange for investment of more than £20bn. Previously Ofwat capped future Thames bill increases at 21%.

If Mr Weston fails to raise fresh capital or persuade bondholders to take a loss, Thames Water may fall into special administration, effectively nationalisation, leaving taxpayers liable until it can be sold to new owners.

The current shareholders have written off their investment.

Water companies face customer anger over dividends and bonuses

Thames Water is the most extreme example of the challenge facing the privatised water companies, under acute pressure to reduce sewage outflows and modernise infrastructure using private investment, while limiting bill increases.

They face huge customer anger at the scale of dividends and bonuses paid to shareholders and executives in the three decades since privatisation, payments they argue are necessary to maintain a privatised system.

As well as new legislation giving Ofwat and the Environment Agency enhanced powers, Environment Secretary Steve Reed announced a review of the entire industry that will begin in the autumn.

Water industry figures welcomed the move, believing it would give them the opportunity to make the case that investors require a more generous return than they are currently allowed to offer by Ofwat.

'We all want the same thing'

In the audience to hear him set out his plans were some of the bosses Mr Reed said have paid themselves £41m since 2021 in bonuses and incentives, including Mr Weston and Liv Garfield, chief executive of Severn Trent, the highest-paid water executive.

Susan Davy, chief executive of Pennon Group, which owns South West Water, told Sky News: "We all just want the same thing and we're going to focus on making sure we deliver for communities."

Asked if she was concerned about the threat of prosecution she said: "I'm just going to focus on what's best for communities and customers."

Horses 'traumatised' after shooting attacks

Julia Gregory
BBC News, Surrey

BBC
Chon Donnelly says the horses have been attacked on four separate occasions over the last couple of weeks


Three horses have been traumatised after they were shot and injured in a Surrey field – with one animal hurt on three sperate occasions.

Chon Donnelly said the horses have been attacked on four separate occasions over the last couple of weeks.

She said she has been forced to put up cameras around the fields near Bletchingley and stables and staff are keeping watch overnight too.

Divine, a black mare, was shot between the eyes in the first incident.


Divine, a black mare, was shot between the eyes


"Her skin had been taken off, " said Chon.

Another horse, a chestnut mare, was shot in the neck.

Chon said she found the horses “frozen” in their field and has had to rebuild their trust.

“Their behaviour changed completely over the next few days and they were huddled in the far corner of the field," she said.

“They were standing stock still and wouldn’t move.

“It was distressing to see because all our horses before they came here have had some kind of trauma.

“Now when they’re all relaxed and in a safe environment – it’s just cruel.”

In the next incident an older horse was shot in the nose “at fairly close range”.

Divine was also shot again, in the shoulder and under the jaw.


'Criminal damage'


Chon urged the people who’ve attacked the horses to “think about the trauma”.

“What’s happened is really cruel because the horses are not able to rationalise what’s happening," she said.

“We’d really like them to think about what they’re doing and stop.”

She has contacted other horse owners to be on their guard and step up their security.

A Surrey Police spokesperson said: “We have received four reports of criminal damage between 18 August and 29 August relating to horses receiving minor injuries from what the owner believes to be an airsoft weapon in Bletchingley.

“Our local team has been made aware and will be conducting follow up enquiries with the owner.”

UK

Sanctuary 'proud' 85 years on from animal deaths

Christopher Mace & Cheryl Dennis
BBC News, West of England

Ferne Animal Sanctuary Charity

Nina, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon set up Ferne Animal Sanctuary in response to a wave of animal deaths


Managers of an animal sanctuary set up in response to a wave of animal deaths in 1939 say they are proud to continue the work 85 years later.

Ferne Animal Sanctuary Charity near Chard, Somerset, was established when hundreds of thousands of pets were put to sleep by their owners who were scared about the start of World War Two.

The sanctuary was set up by Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton and Brandon, at the Ferne Estate in Donhead St Andrew, in Wiltshire, before it moved to Somerset in the 1960s.

Animal care manager, Nikki Haddock, said: "I would like to think [Nina] would be really proud her operation is still running."


Kevan Hodges said he was proud of the charity's history


Marking the anniversary, charity's current CEO, Kevan Hodges, said: "It [the charity] comes from a distressing story, which then leads to what I think is the greatest animal rescue story of all-time.

"What Lady Nina did saved so many animals."

The charity was started after a pamphlet by the government's National Air Raid Precautions Animals Committee (NARPAC) was distributed to people in larger cities before the outbreak of war in 1939.

It suggested people with animals should send them to the countryside or, if this was not possible, and nobody else would take them, it said "it really is kindest to have them destroyed".

Ferne Animal Sanctuary
The Ferne Estate in Wiltshire was the sanctuary's first home, but it was demolished in the 1960s


In the week following the outbreak of World War Two, people started acting on the pamphlet's suggestions.

Mr Hodges told the BBC more than 400,000 animals are thought to have been put to sleep.

Horrified by what was happening, the duchess decided to open her estate home in Wiltshire as a sanctuary, taking in cats and dogs from larger cities.

Having moved to Chard in Somerset, the sanctuary now looks after about 300 animals.

Ms Haddock said: "The variety of animals is increasing, we've got more of a reach into difference species. And the help we are bringing to more people, I think Nina would be really proud of the work."


Nikki Haddock works with the 300 animals on the site


Mr Hodges said the recent cost of living crisis has been "unprecedentedly tough" for the charity with "spiralling" costs.

"In the last 12 months, vet and medical [bills], is 60% up year on year," he said.

"If you combine that with our other costs, roughly a 45% to 50% year on year increase, for us as a charity, that makes a cost difference at about £450,000.

"We've had to make some fundamental changes this year to re-adjust our cost balance."

But he said despite the challenges they "have to continue Nina's work".

The farmers changing how they work to protect the planet

Louise Cullen
BBC News NI agriculture and environment correspondent

BBC
Regenerative farming starts with getting to know your soil in detail - including its worms and their poo


Carbon may be a dirty word, but in farming and food terms, it is currency.

It creates life in the soil which translates to nutrition.

As a frontline in the fight against climate change, farmers are being asked to adapt their methods to protect the planet.

Regenerative farming is one system attracting growing attention and hundreds of farmers are expected to discuss and learn about it at the Fields Good conference in Glenarm on Saturday.

Missouri rancher Greg Judy who will be speaking at the event has changed how he describes his work in the American Midwest.

"I used to call myself a grass farmer - I'm not a grass farmer, I'm a microbe farmer," he said as he searched the soil on Will Fraser's Cullybackey farm for worm manure.

"Conventional agriculture, you use a lot of inputs – nitrogen, fertiliser, phosphorus.

"We don't use any of that stuff."

Instead, he rotates his cattle from one area to another up to three times a day.

That means the grass is always regenerating, animals are feeding on long diverse growth and the soil is filled with earthworms - and their poo.



Greg Judy (R), visiting from the US, told Culleybackey's William Fraser how he has changed his farming methods



As a relative newcomer to the regenerative approach, Will Fraser was inspired by an oak tree which is dead and worn away where it faces into a field.

It's a reminder to him of the impact of how the farm was run before he took it over three years ago, when cattle were put out for a set period of months.

"In bad weather, they all camped around the tree," he said.

"That's where compaction has damaged the roots, there was over-fertilisation around the base of basically an ancient tree which has led to that big dead branch sticking out."

Too much fertiliser - whether organic or not - can be harmful to plants.

He now rotates his livestock so they no longer have the opportunity to gather round any particular spot.

A 'no brainer' and a 'win-win'


And he concentrates on building diversity in his grass to encourage the worms and other bugs in the soil, an approach he describes as "a no-brainer".

"We've got so much risk in our system, particularly from a climate and weather point of view, we need to get a much more resilient soil and pasture base from which to work," he said.

"We need to be building a system which can cope with the weather we're getting - the cold springs, the wet summers - where we can get animals out and get them performing off grass.

"We've got a long way to go but we're making the first baby steps in the right direction, we're able to save costs and hopefully build resilience in terms of how long we can keep stock out and how much feeding value they're getting from the system."

While Will acknowledges it's not for everyone, he believes it's a "win-win" for many.


'Farmers can't forget what our grandparents taught us'


For Fields Good organiser Bronagh O'Kane, it is an approach that should get more support.

"This isn't a fad, this isn't a trend, it is happening worldwide," she said.

"The tricky part is the transition and it’ll be different for every system, but we really need the government to step up and come up with some good plans to help us transition.

"It's already a difficult industry as it is, to make good margins in and so to ask us all to go beyond, we need help and that's a big ask."


Conference organiser Bronagh O'Kane wants farmers to get more help with the transition to new ways of working


For Greg, who has been visiting Northern Ireland farms ahead of the convention, a shift in focus is the goal rather than wholesale change.

"The type of grazing we do, it's very environmentally friendly, it's wildlife-friendly, it'll help heal the water cycle," he said.

"Bare soil is death.

"The cow - that same tool that was used to destroy the American West and turned it into a desert because of overgrazing - the same tool can be used to regenerate the soil.

"It's not the cow, it's the how."

Archaeologists discover elaborate 1,700-year-old grave of ‘barbarian’ who lived near Roman Empire’s frontier

Man, 60, likely belonged to Alemanni Germanic tribes that played a role in Rome’s downfall

Vishwam Sankaran

THE INDEPENDENT UK
Sept> 4, 2024


Archaeologists have unearthed the grave of a “barbarian” who died on the frontier of the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD.

The man, about 60 years old, was buried 1,700 years ago along with valuable goods such as pottery, glassware, and a small fine-tooth comb.

Researchers found the burial during the construction of homes at the village of Gerstetten, 65km east of Stuttgart in Germany.

The elaborately built grave was enclosed in a wooden chamber and was situated at a prominent, solitary location, they said.

Grave unearthed at Gerstetten village in Germany (Gizem Dakmaz)

The Romans called Germanic tribal people “barbarians”, literally meaning “people who speak differently”, a term they also used for non-Roman people living outside the empire’s territories.

Archaeologists said the man likely belonged to the Alemanni Germanic tribes that lived on the Upper Rhine river.

Germanic barbarians invaded the Western Roman Empire to the south towards the end of the fifth century, causing its downfall.

Archaeologists say it is rare to find graves from this time in the region (ArchaeoBW)

The period from the 4th to 8th centuries was a time of major socioeconomic and cultural transformation in Europe. But not much is known about it in the absence of reliable written accounts.

Researchers inspect a grave belonging to the Germanic Alemanni federation tribe (Gizem Dakmaz)

Archaeological studies of barbarian cemeteries provide valuable insights into this time, called the Migration Period, which laid the foundation of modern European society, but few early German graves have previously been discovered.


Most of the graves uncovered so far are in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg bordering France and Switzerland.

Ceramic vessels unearthed at site (Yvonne Mühleis)

Archeologists said finding more graves would shed further light on this epoch of history.

“The excavation on Bismarckstraße, where the burial was discovered, was completed a week after the tomb was discovered at the beginning of May,” the Stuttgart Regional Council said in a statement.

Small comb found in ‘barbarian’ grave (Yvonne Mühleis/Stuttgart Regional Council)

Two ceramic vessels found at the site have been restored by the State Office for Monument Preservation at the Stuttgart Regional Council.


A rib from the grave, sampled for carbon dating, confirmed that he died between 263 and 342 AD.

In Nepal, a humble edible fern is at heart of human-tiger conflict

Abhaya Raj Joshi
6 Sep 2024

In Kathmandu, fiddlehead ferns, also referred to as niuro locally, are highly prized, especially in the monsoon season when the markets first stock them.

Niuro is also a vital source of income for people in Nepal’s lowlands, especially those close to national parks like Chitwan and Bardiya, where the fern grows abundantly.

News reports of fatalities related to niuro collection frequently highlight the risks involved, as harvesters frequently put their lives in danger to collect more ferns for financial gain.

In order to lessen conflicts between people and wildlife, one piece of advice is to update community forest management plans to incorporate safer methods for gathering wild edibles like niuro and to look into sustainable livelihood options.

See All Key Ideas

KATHMANDU — Tightly coiled fern plants with a distinctive appearance emerge amid the sal tree undergrowth as the monsoon rains fall on Nepal’s fertile floodplains.

Due to its resemblance to the violin scroll, the plant is known as the “fiddle-head fern,” locally called niuro.

Soon, the fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) will travel to different parts of the nation, including Kathmandu, where it will be savored with staple rice and lentils.

Beneath this unassuming vegetable, however, is a tale of complex relationships between people and wildlife, survival and the harsh realities of tigerland life in Nepal.

Niuro is commonly pickled or boiled with potatoes. For the people of Kathmandu, once the market is overflowing with it, it’s just another vegetable. However, niuro is a means of subsistence for those residing in the Terai, particularly landless people who live close to national parks like Chitwan and Bardiya, as it can be sold for a good price and support families.

“It is a delicacy as well as a source of income for the people of the lowlands,” says Birendra Mahato, director at the Tharu Cultural Museum and Research Center in Sauraha, near Chitwan National Park. “People risk their lives to go into the jungle to fetch the plant.”

In protected areas such as Chitwan National Park, it is illegal to harvest this wild fern, found to have antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties. Local harvesters are forced to play cat and mouse with both patrolling soldiers and wild animals like tigers and rhinos because they believe the tastiest niuro grows in these forbidden zones.

It takes courage to go into the jungles and gather niuro. One major threat comes from the dense underbrush, which is home to some of Nepal’s most dangerous predators. Particularly dangerous to anyone who ventures into their territory are tigers.

Rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Image by John Nabelek/OSU via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

“The time of the day people look for niuro coincides with the tigers’ active period when they move around looking for prey,” explains Jhamak Karki, a former warden at Chitwan National Park. As illegal collectors want to avoid being spotted by security personnel, they have been found going into the jungle either early in the morning or after dusk.

“If a tiger sees a person bending down to cut the fern, it might mistake them for prey, even though humans aren’t its preferred food.”

The risks are increased in the monsoon season when tigers and other animals seek cover in the cooler, marshy parts of the jungle, which are ideal for niuro growth. This raises the possibility of fatal interactions.

Regretfully, these kinds of interactions happen frequently. Almost every monsoon season, news reports surface about tigers killing fern collectors. Aash Bahadur Bote, a 26-year-old man, perished on July 24, 2023, while looking for niuro. A 55-year-old woman in Chitwan suffered a similar fate in June 2022.

“Two years ago, a man died because he wanted more,” recalls Mahato. “He already had 90 bunches of niuro, but he wanted 10 more. The tiger killed him.”

Between 2019 and 2023, 38 people lost their lives in tiger attacks in Nepal. Conservationists claim that people entering known tiger habitats in search of fuel, wood and food — such as niuro — is the primary cause of these deaths.

These incidents highlight the risky nature of collecting niuro and the extreme measures people are willing to take. According to Nepali law, if someone enters a national park without authorization — for instance, to gather niuro — and dies, the government is not required to compensate the departed person’s family.

The financial rewards are undisputed, notwithstanding the dangers. A harvester can make 1,000-1,200 Nepali rupees (about $7.50-$9) in a single day, which is a substantial amount for many families in the area. “I utilize the funds to purchase necessities and send my son to school,” Kumari BK, a 50-year-old niuro collector who gathers the plants from community forests around Chitwan, told Onlinekhabar in 2023.

Fiddle-head fern is found to have antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties. Image by Oskar Gran via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

The risks connected to niuro collection highlight the need for safer and more environmentally friendly substitutes. In Nepal, a lot of conservation programs concentrate on giving livestock feed and cooking fuel, but they frequently ignore problems relating to wild edibles like niuro.

In order to address the conflict between humans and wildlife, researcher and conservationist Kanchan Thapa says he thinks wild edibles need to receive more attention. The fact that these plants exist in the wild gives them value. Cultivating them in controlled environments would be challenging, he says.

Revision of community forest management plans to incorporate guidelines for the safe gathering of wild edibles is one possible remedy. According to Karki, “The current plans are primarily focused on timber extraction and fodder.” However, they also need to talk about how safe it is for people to gather niuro. To prevent future deaths, this could involve taking steps like traveling in groups, designating precise times for collection and keeping an eye on tiger activity.

Thapa says more successful livelihood initiatives are required, ones that take into consideration the conditions of these communities. “We also need to look into sustainable substitutes for wild edibles that can promote livelihoods without endangering lives.”

Until such solutions are found, the humble niuro will continue to remain at the heart of human-tiger interactions in Nepal.

Banner image: Tightly coiled ferns of Matteuccia struthiopteris. Image by Marc-Lautenbacher via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Citation:

Singla, S., Rana, R., Kumar, S., Thakur, R., & Goyal, S. (2022). Matteuccia struthiopteris (L.) Todaro (fiddlehead fern): An updated review. Bulletin of the National Research Centre, 46(1). doi:10.1186/s42269-022-00822-z

 DO NOT LICK FINGERS WHEN TURNING PAGES


Arsenic and Old Books

Victorian era books had lots of stories about poisoning with arsenic. But some books could also dispense the poison.

Joe Schwarcz PhD | 5 Sep 2024

McGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL


I’ve long been intrigued by the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. The magnificent building was constructed of 60,000 panes of glass, ten times as many as in the windows of the Empire State Building! There were exhibits from around the world that included the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, a steam-powered printing press, an early prototype of a fax machine and a device that used leeches to predict the weather based on the idea that leeches in a jar of water would rise to the top when a storm was approaching. Then there was a fascinating display of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear and demonstrations by Samuel Colt of his revolver. The Exhibition was championed by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband who was a great promoter of science. The Queen herself toured the exhibits some forty times along with six million other visitors who had the chance to relieve themselves in the first public toilets ever installed. They had to pay a penny for the privilege, not much compared with the entry fee of five shillings that effectively limited attendance to middle-class and aristocratic visitors.

The Exhibition made a huge profit with the funds being subsequently used to build the superb London Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Prince Albert planned for some of the money to be used for scholarships to encourage early-career scientists to carry out research. This program eventually came to fruition in 1891 with one of the first recipients being future Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford who was awarded the scholarship that allowed him to travel from New Zealand to study at the University of Cambridge. Rutherford then went on to establish a spectacular career in physics at McGill University before returning to England.

As much as I would like to read more about the history of the Crystal Palace, I would not pick up an original copy of John Tallis's “History and Description of the Crystal Palace and the Exhibition of the World's Industry in 1851.” Not without gloves anyway. The book, published in 1852, has a beautiful emerald green cloth cover and certainly would have invited thumbing through by Victorians. Some, however, would have paid an unexpected price. Burns and blisters caused by arsenic! But the story gets worse.

In 1775, Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had discovered that combining sodium carbonate with arsenious oxide and copper sulfate produces a green pigment, copper arsenite, that came to be known as “Scheele’s green.” It was used to colour wallpaper, textiles, book bindings, wax candles, toys and even candies. This turned out to be disastrous. Arsenic-containing dust particles from wallpaper could be inhaled, but even worse was poisoning by arsine gas (AsH3), dubbed the “green death.” The gas was produced when mold infected the wallpaper and metabolized the pigment. A tragic event underlined the danger of Scheele’s green in 1861 when a nineteen-year-old maid died as a result of dusting artificial flowers dyed with Scheele’s green.

Actually, by this time, Scheele’s green had mostly been replaced by “Paris green,” first formulated in 1814 by German paint manufacturers Wilhelm Sattler and Friedrich Russ who combined copper acetate with arsenic trioxide to yield copper acetoarsenite. They were trying to improve upon Scheele’s green which tended to turn black with age. Paris green wasn’t any better in that regard, but it was a more brilliant green and became popular with artists like Monet, Gaugin and van Gogh who used it extensively in the background for his 1888 self-portrait. Paris green was no less toxic than Scheele’s green, no surprise here since it also contained arsenic. Indeed, the chemical was toxic enough to be used to kill rats in the Paris sewers, which is how it acquired its name. It also became the world’s first chemical insecticide and was used to control termites and the tobacco budworm.

I know that even if I got the chance, I would not handle the Crystal Palace book without gloves, but there are undoubtedly book lovers who are unaware that a poison may be lurking in the beautiful bindings of the Victorian books they seek to acquire. The “Poison Boom Project” at the University of Delaware aims to educate people about the use of arsenic compounds in Victorian books and has put together a database of volumes that are suspected to be tainted with arsenic.

While learning about “toxic books” is captivating, it is a trivial issue when considering possible cases of arsenic poisoning. And we are not talking about deliberate arsenic poisoning either, such as was practiced by the Borgias, perhaps history’s most famous crime family, fond of eliminating enemies with arsenic during the Italian Renaissance. Neither of Giulia Toffana, the 17th century professional poisoner who was happy to provide arsenic-based “Aqua Toffana” to women who wished to dispense with their abusive husbands. The arsenic poisoning that we are talking about is one that affects people drinking water with naturally occurring arsenic leached from the soil. An estimated 140 million people around the world drink such arsenic tainted water. In Bangladesh alone, roughly 43,000 people a year die from arsenic related diseases.

One wonders how many of the visitors at the Crystal Palace Exhibition were wearing apparel dyed with arsenic, and how many of the displays featured posters that attracted the public with the stunning colour of Paris green.

@JoeSchwarcz