From: wpenrose@customsensorsolutions.com (William Penrose)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: Is it Harmful???
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 03:05:34 GMT

On Wed, 28 Jun 2000 09:44:30 +0930, "Dariusz Karpinski"
<DKarpinski@bigpond.com> wrote:

>health?
>The building would have been built in the early 1900's and is suffering a
>severe case of salt damp. Iam trying to deduce whether there is a health
>issue involved if someone was exposed to internal saltdamp during the course
>of their regular sleep?

Some very old buildings contain copper chromium arsenate as a pigment
in their wallpaper. Dampness and the growth of mildew in the walls has
been known to lead to trimethylarsine poisoning, and actually caused
some deaths up until the 1920's.

The phenomenon was characterized by Gosio in the 19th century, and the
gas was called 'Gosio gas'. F. Challenger in 1925 established that
Gosio gas was trimethylarsine. I published a review on environmental
arsenic in 1974. I'll send the reference if you are interested and
contact me by email.

Naturally, the mold spores found in such a building can be pretty hard
on folks with allergies and asthma.

Bill

From: wpenrose@customsensorsolutions.com (William Penrose)
Newsgroups: sci.chem
Subject: Re: Is it Harmful???
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 02:41:39 GMT

On Wed, 28 Jun 2000 00:36:30 -0700, "Ray L." <-@-.-> wrote:

>William Penrose wrote:
>>
>>> Some very old buildings contain copper chromium arsenate as a pigment
>> in their wallpaper.
>
>copper chromium arsenate.  That sounds familiar.
>
>pressure-treated wood foundations

I was off-base. I checked--re-read my own paper. The Gosio culprit was
copper acetoarsenate.

Bill (brain fart alert)