The process was so inefficient that at Toms River, making brown vat dye, a typical example, required five and a half pounds of raw material to produce one pound of finished dye, with almost all of the remainder discarded as waste.
-- Dan Fagin (2 )

Importance: The author explains how much waste was created by dye manufacturing. The waste had to go somewhere. It was a financial and physical burden on the company. They needed a place to put the waste that was cheap and out of sight.

After Paracelsus and Ramazzini, it was clear that many afflictions were a consequence of human action. Risk could be reduced by precaution, or it could be promoted by recklessness in pursuit of treasure.
-- Dan Fagin (2 )

Importance: Previous to this quote, Fagin explains a change in the way medieval medicine was learned. Because of a few doctors who studied workplace environments and the effects on the workers, they were able to...