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Ordinary matches once destroyed workers’ jawbones. 🔥
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Dark HistoryAug 15, 2026

Ordinary matches once destroyed workers’ jawbones. 🔥

Ordinary matches once destroyed workers’ jawbones. 🔥 . . . During the 1800s, factories including Bryant & May used toxic white phosphorus in match heads. Prolonged exposure could cause abscesses, glowing discharge and necrosis known as “phossy jaw.” The 1888 Matchwomen’s Strike exposed how a pocket-sized flame carried a brutal human cost.

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Source

Louise Raw, 2011, 'Striking a Light: The Bryant and May Matchwomen and their Place in History'

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