I recently watched, Hidden killers of the Victorian Home, and it mentioned that many of the green items in the Victorian home were made using arsenic. The results seen in the video seemed ghastly but wasn't clear how many people became ill/died as a result of these items (mostly clothing and wallpaper) When I, a layperson, think of the Victorian era I think of green rich rooms, would that mean many homes had this green wallpaper?
As of 1858 manufacturers estimated they had produced one hundred million square miles of Green wallpaper. It's popularity picked up at the beginning of the 19th century, but concerns over it's damaging effects led most homes to remove it in the 1870s. Stories about the ill-health of residents began early on, but it wasn't considered a big enough problem to win out over consumerism. It didn't help that the reason it was poisonous wasn't understood until the 1891 when Barolomeo Gosio discovered that damp conditions and mold created a reaction resulting in the gas we now call trimethylarsine. More recent studies have shown it's unlikely to be deadly, but could certainly cause health problems. Earlier belief that it was the dust from the papers causing the problem meant that "higher quality" papers that didn't shed as much caused many to believe they wouldn't have a problem. Sunlight or heat in the room causing a release of gases was another potential culprit. It wasn't until later when the Green wallpapers had been papered over but were still causing issues that the topic was re-evaluated. There is an article in the Journal of the Royal Medical Society that covers this topic in brief and has resources for further reading.