> fairly sure the link is wildly overstating its case

Sorry for the particular link, I'd grabbed whatever.

If one takes a minute, one can find contemporary newspaper articles. IIRC, many were about how people could suffocate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Lm03AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA337&dq=t...

Contemporary women's health:

https://books.google.com/books?id=9-FXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA71&dq=ho...

And contemporary survey of fears:

https://books.google.com/books?id=-RdAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA107&dq=%...

Aaand, a 2023 takedown of claiming claims about historical tech hysteria:

https://www.wired.com/story/technology-predictions-history/