Irish author's 'poisonous' books removed from National Library of France

A collection by an Irish author is among four books which have been pulled from the shelves of The National Library of France as they might be poisonous.

France's national library, which contains a collection of more than 16 million books, said last week it had removed four 19th-century books from its shelves whose emerald green covers were likely laced with highly poisonous arsenic.

Arsenic was commonly used for its colour pigmentation and the arsenic-containing green pigments - called Paris green, or Scheele’s green - were frequently utilised for books.

READ MORE:Free book programme for Irish children launched by country singer Dolly Parton's charity

The books were identified by University of Delaware researchers and include two volumes of Limerick author Edward Hayes’s “The Ballads of Ireland” from 1855.

The library said handling the books - which were printed in Britain - would probably cause only minor harm, but it was taking them away for further analysis."We have put these works in quarantine and an external laboratory will analyse them to evaluate how much arsenic is present in each volume," said a spokesperson from the National Library of France.

The other books pulled from the library shelves books include the 1862-1863 book of the Royal Horticultural Society and an 1856 bilingual anthology of Romanian poetry by Henry Stanley.

The list of potentially hazardous titles was put together by the Poison Book Project, an initiative run by researchers from the University of Delaware which investigates the materiality of Victorian-era publishers’ bindings.

Research focuses on identifying potentially toxic pigments used in bookbinding components and how to handle and store potentially toxic collections more safely.

The Poison Book Project says books laced with the toxin should be stored with caution and could present a health risk to those handling them.

Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the latest news direct to your inbox

Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.