When the Public Feared That Library Books Could Spread Deadly Diseases

Here’s information from NHS on how long some viruses can live outside the body: https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/infections/how-lo..., I think this indicates that (1) yes, viruses can, in principle, be transmitted through books, (2) time window for this is rather small, and (3) probability of infection is further reduced since we usually just handle the book and not, e.g. lick pages (so there might be greater probability for young children’s books). Altogether, looks like the danger level is on par with interacting with the regular outside world, e.g. door handles, staircase railings.

Conceivably, however, books could be a suitable attack vector for deliberate contamination with toxic substances and bacteria pores.

Famous literary example is the poisoned copy of Aristotle’s Second Poetics in the Name of the Rose (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose)

The modern version of this scare (possibly more real) is bedbugs in library books. Our local library had to close for a few days recently due to a bed bug infestation. It is 50% library, 50% homeless shelter, unfortunately.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/garden/bedbugs-hitch-a-ri...

Spread of disease is unavoidable in a society of public restrooms and shared infrastructure. Sick people contaminate their environment at points of contact like handles, toilet seats, keyboards, the air around them, etc. The damages caused by sick people at work are poorly estimated at $150B (https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11323-cost-of-coming-to-wo...).

I could imagine micro terrorists or psychos who actively try to spread disease. Sick people who go to work do the same thing, just without evil intentions. It would be relatively easy to cultivate bacteria or viruses and spread them across the human environment.

Examples:

- Go to the airport and mist some Norovirus around

- Enter a couple stalls and drip some E-Coli on the seats or contaminate a whole role of toilet paper or drying paper

- Contaminate a few ketchup bottles at a restaurant or mist the silverware bucket

It would be extremely difficult to pinpoint these people as the damage is anonymous, random, and highly distributed. Damages could dwarf any previous terrorist attack or serial killer. It's likely that such people exist.

I have a library of old (1870's-1930's) books on bacterial and fungal taxonomy, and I'm cautious not to breathe too deeply when I handle some of them. Many of these may have been used in non-sterile microbiology labs, likely including my copy of A Manual of Tropical Diseases (signed by Catellani himself). Bacterial spores (e.g., Bacillus, can survive in dehydrated states indefinitely). Some of the notes in margins, covers, bookplates and stamps show snapshots of where these have been.

So can diseases be spread through contaminated books or not? the article seemingly does not make a clear statement either way.

And then of course there is Anthrax dust. http://lepo.it.da.ut.ee/~cect/teoreetiline%20seminar%2001.10...

My son is 4 and we get a lot of kids books out of the library. I do wonder occasionally whether he can catch a cold from the books since kids are sick quite a lot and they like to put their hands in their mouths, etc

In Chinese libraries there are sanitization boxes that everyone runs their books through after check out.

Seemed like it was just UV, though I didn't ask.

Stay out of the shadows ;-)

lawl, so another public resource being demonized? this like those posts regarding the trouble of public transportation. only the stupidest people will buy into these kind of social media brainwashing. anything the wealthy do not use will be demonized.