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Assessing Human Risk
Published in Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell, Living with the Earth, 2018
Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell
The study of environmental risk began humbly as a desire to understand and avoid obvious dangers to human health. Prior to the development of sophisticated scientific testing, knowledge of health effects was limited by what people could observe with the naked eye. For instance, poisons like arsenic were known to have visible and acute adverse effects on health.5 As scientific tools improved, scientists were able to test for the presence of a specific chemical. Developed in 1836, the Marsh test could indicate the definitive presence of arsenic. This test, the first of its kind, launched the field of forensic toxicology. Over time scientists were able to examine a broader set of chemicals, to study how a chemical affected a living organism, with the intent to understand not only the immediate health effects but also longer-term consequences of exposure. This study developed into a discipline known today as risk assessment. In this chapter, we will look at the tools and components parts of risk assessment, as it is used to understand environmental risk.
Arsenic Poisoning through Ages
Published in M. Manzurul Hassan, Arsenic in Groundwater, 2018
The detection of arsenic took a leap forward in 1832 when James Marsh (a chemist at the Royal British Arsenal in Woolwich) decided to investigate analytical methods to provide juries with more reliable evidence of “visible arsenic” (Cullen, 2008: 173). His test method was first used in the trial of Marie LaFarge in France in 1840, in which Marie LaFarge was charged with poisoning her husband with arsenic-laden cakes (Cullen, 2008: 173). The Marsh test represented a turning point in arsenic analytics, and it is effective enough to the present day. The Marsh test was the beginning of the end of undetected arsenic poisonings (Marsh, 1837; Newton, 2007: 7). Arsenic poisoning involved several elderly women of Nagyrev village in south-central Hungary (Gyorgyey, 1987). In 1929, four women were brought to trial, accused of murdering family members with arsenic. There were other suspicious deaths in this village during that time—some 46 of the deceased had arsenic levels high enough to be lethal. Other women were brought to trial later and charged with the murders of husbands, fathers, sons, mothers-in-law, and fathers-in-law with arsenic. Several of the women were found guilty of murder and punished (Hughes, 2016: 6).
Lead Poisoning in France around 1840: Managing Proofs and Uncertainties in Laboratories, Courtrooms, and Workplaces
Published in Ambix, 2021
While acting as an expert in the Ponchon trial, Barse was also working on one of his most ambitious books, which he published in collaboration with the toxicologist and hygienist Jean-Baptiste-Alphonse Chevallier (1793–1879). This was a comprehensive review of the Marsh test, the most famous nineteenth-century method for arsenic detection. The test required few material resources but, given its high sensitivity, demanded great practical skill on the part of its practitioner to avoid false positives.41 Since arsenic was the most common poison of the time, Barse performed several Marsh tests on Ponchon’s remains and took every possible precaution to avoid the controversies surrounding this new technique.42