The cyanide risk probably was from varnish coating of the wire burning off in the solder pot.
A long time ago I did some circuit board construction with verowire, where ye have to burn through the insulation to solder. The wire supplies from Verospeed came sternly labelled with warnings about using ventilation while soldering, to disperse the cyanide fumes.
I wasn't that impressed by this construction method, and instead turned to using wirewrap.