You have to remember that was prior to the 1920’s rise of the CFC’s. Sealing systems and technology have progressed to a point to where that would not be such a huge problem today..................
Obviously technologies have improved, but no matter how well built all systems fail, and ammonia is toxic and if we go back to using Ammonia as our primary refrigerant, you will have people die from it, its just the way it is.
The fact folks died from refrigerant leaks when it was the primary refrigerant used was one of the big reasons CFC’s became the primary refrigerant used.. because they didn’t kill folks when they leaked.
We had a mass casualty event at my last job after an ammonia leak in a local food plant.