-
Asked by anon-193319 to Heidi, Morwenna, Jamal, iainstaniland, Emma, Carl on 9 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-193421.
Question: what is the most toxic colour?
- Keywords:
-
Heidi Gardner answered on 9 Nov 2018:
Interesting question! I wasn’t sure but I did some research and in old paintings the colour white was made from lead. Lead is toxic and really dangerous to humans, it can cause death.
-
Carl Heron answered on 10 Nov 2018:
Lots of toxic substances are coloured green, red, blue and yellow.
How about orpiment? It’s a mineral rock with a beautiful orange/yellow colour that could be crushed mixed with oil or wax and used in paintings by Van Gogh, Gaugin and others. It’s really dangerous. Why? Because orpiment is made up of a compound of arsenic (arsenic trisulphide). Some objects at the British Museum were painted using orpiment (even Egyptian coffins containing mummies). The scientists are often asked to confirm that the colour is indeed orpiment so that when the coffin is moved or cleaned, we can take precautions to ensure that no-one comes into contact with any toxic substances.
-
Emma Crawford answered on 11 Nov 2018:
Really interesting question! I found a nice little TED talk video on this very subject 🙂 Check it out: https://youtu.be/gKfjHTk8KrY
The video explains how white, green and orange are known to be the dangerous colours due to harmful properties of these pigments!
Comments
anon-193397 commented on :
wow that is really mindblowing