Sculptor unknowingly poisons self with own art, will 'never fully recover'

[Turd Fergusen]

When a sculptor in Toronto started feeling ill in 2013, she had no idea that her art was the reason why. The sculptor, Gillian Genser, had been using blue mussel shells in her sculptures for the past 15 years, and, as a result, unknowingly poisoning herself.

The culprit? Heavy metals, including arsenic and lead, found in the mussel shells. In a moving personal essay published Nov. 28 in Toronto Life, Genser described the onset of her symptoms — which began with agitation, headaches and vomiting, and later progressed to symptoms such as hearing loss in one ear and short-term memory problems. It took two years for doctors to nail down the diagnosis of heavy metal poisoning.

Full Story:
https://www.foxnews.com/health/scul...herself-with-own-art-will-never-fully-recover

 

[Satanica]

Weird and terrible.

 

[Old Man Metal]

That's nuts. Who'd'a thunk it? Arsenic and lead are nothing to mess with, that's a fact.

 

[McDanel]

Abalone is dangerous too, but for a completely different reason. To be used in jewelry, it has to be cut underwater, or at least very wet. The shell contains a neurotoxin, inhaling the powder can paralyze lung function.

 

[Sejanus]

Research in her preferred medium would have been wise.
Sure it is sad and all, but asking where the shells came from would have been called for.