Last night, at a Zoom session of a genealogy group, one of the members (from Yorktown, VA) brought up the issue of quilts and dresses that were made with that lovely shade of nile green. It turned out that the color was achieved with arsenic. In light of the discussion on chemical dependencies in earlier times, I rooted about for information about the other sorts of horrors to which women were exposed and found this: https://www.thimblesandacorns.com/judging-a-cloth-by-its-color-part-3/
Green wasn't the only color with difficulties. Who'd have thought that attendance at balls might lead to illness--or, even, an early grave?