Body Count

Fake Silk ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul David Blanc
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
American Medical Association ◽  
Medical Association ◽  
Carbon Disulfide ◽  
Viscose Rayon ◽  
Rubber Industry ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Curing Method ◽  
Body Count

This chapter considers the growing body of evidence confirming the health hazards of carbon disulfide in the viscose rayon industry. In her report Industrial Poisons Used in the Rubber Industry, Alice Hamilton, a leading U.S. expert on the toxicity of carbon disulfide, provides a technical primer on the rubber manufacturing process, including the carbon disulfide–based cold curing method for vulcanization. Hamilton's report also details the toxic materials used in the rubber industry, with particular emphasis on the toxic effects of carbon disulfide. In a June 1940 meeting of the American Medical Association, Friedrich Lewy presented an overview of nervous system damage from carbon disulfide, based on experimental animal research along with the limited human pathological data that were available. Lewy covered carbon disulfide's past uses in rubber vulcanizing but pushed the viscose rayon industry to the forefront.

Fake Silk

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul David Blanc
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Carbon Disulfide ◽  
Viscose Rayon ◽  
New Technology ◽  
The Body ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Safety Concerns ◽  
History Of ◽  
Body Count

When a new technology makes people ill, how high does the body count have to be before protectives steps are taken? This disturbing book tells a dark story of hazardous manufacturing, poisonous materials, environmental abuses, political machinations, and economics trumping safety concerns. It explores the century-long history of “fake silk” or cellulose viscose, used to produce such products as rayon textiles and tires, cellophane, and everyday kitchen sponges. The book uncovers the grim history of a product that crippled and even served a death sentence to many industry workers while also releasing toxic carbon disulfide into the environment. Viscose, an innovative and lucrative product first introduced in the early twentieth century, quickly became a multinational corporate enterprise. The book investigates the viscose rayon industry's practices from the beginning through two highly profitable world wars, the midcentury export of hazardous manufacturing to developing countries, and the current “greenwashing” of viscose rayon as an eco-friendly product. This book brings to light an industrial hazard whose egregious history ranks with those of asbestos, lead, and mercury.

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