The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Written by Deborah Blum
Narrated by Kirsten Potter
4/5
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About this audiobook
From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change
By the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified as a cleaning product. This was not by accident; food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry, and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. By some estimates, in New York City alone, thousands of children were killed by "embalmed milk" every year. Citizens—activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups—began agitating for change. But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, "The Poison Squad."
Over the next thirty years, a titanic struggle took place, with the courageous and fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law."
Blum brings to life this timeless and hugely satisfying "David and Goliath" tale with righteous verve and style, driving home the moral imperative of confronting corporate greed and government corruption with a bracing clarity, which speaks resoundingly to the enormous social and political challenges we face today.
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Reviews for The Poison Squad
38 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found myself fascinated by the chapters covering Harvey Wiley's early investigations and efforts. Once the book became about the political machinations after the law was passed, i became less interested. Business applying secret pressure to get regulations eased is a well trod tale.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deborah Blum's work as author of "The Poison Squad" ranks in my mind right up there with Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." Blum explores the history of food processing in this country and the passion and struggles of chemists who campaigned for improvements to food processing, the development and involvement of the FDA, and the pushback from lobbies to keep the status quo - claiming no injuries started by old methods of food processing. The "ingredients" added to spices or passed off as spices was truly alarming to read. This book will open your eyes and perhaps for many of you - compel action in healthy eating.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Solid account of the battles over food purity laws in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; I found it to be informative and mostly well-written, though there are a few glitches that passed the editors.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book documents the history of regulation of food labeling and safety. It was a difficult read...I hope I lost some weight! What was most discouraging is that it echoes the battle between business interests and consumer protection regulation that continues today.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is the fascinating, alarming, and encouraging story of the first great round in the fight for food safety in the USA.In the second half of the 19th century, the food industry embraced the chemical industry, and preservatives, colorants, and substitutions became common. This might not sound all that alarming, as all those terms apply to things legitimately used in food now. However, at that time, milk could contain formaldehyde, jellies and jams might contain none of the claimed fruit at all and get their color from coal tar dyes, and there were no labeling requirements at all. Basic food safety legislation was making progress in Europe, but was completely squelched by industry efforts in America.In 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley was appointed chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture, and began a thirty-year crusade for clean, safe, and honestly packaged food. Under him, the agency began methodically investigating fraud in the manufacture and sale of food and drink. This included tests on human volunteers dubbed "The Poison Squad," tests that probably wouldn't pass an ethics committee review now, but were for the time a serious early attempt at controlled testing with informed volunteer test subjects. Among the commonly used preservatives in food at the time, aside from formaldehyde, were borax (a cleaning compound) and salicylic acid (a pharmaceutical). Saccharine was used as a sugar substitute in food products that continued to be labeled, if they were at all, as being sweetened with sugar. Even honest labeling was seen as an outrageous infringement on noble American business.Wiley wasn't just fighting industry greed; he was often fighting politicians in the House and Senate, and even his own colleagues in the Department of Agriculture. On the other hand, he also had allies: the American Medical Association, women's suffrage groups, Fannie Farmer and other popular cookbook writers, women's magazines, and even those companies in the food industry, such as J.B. Heinz, who took pride in their products being manufactured to high standards with only the expected ingredients (ketchup made primarily of tomatoes, for instance.)It's a fascinating battle, with victories and setbacks, and Wiley himself is an interesting character. Nor is he the only interesting character here. It was never a one-man battle, on either side of the fight, and Blum truly does justice to the story.Highly recommended.I bought this audiobook.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This well researched non fiction book focuses on the work of chemist Dr. Harvey Wiley to bring purity to American food products. The time period here is the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You will not believe the terrible stuff they used as dyes, preservatives and fillers many of which were toxic (formaldehyde and lead based chemicals etc.) Dr Wiley must fight not only the food industry but also the Secretary of Agriculture Wilson who is in bed with them. Very enlightening.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of the Pure Food and Drug Act, based on the life and work of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, chief chemist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starting in the middle of the nineteenth-century companies started using preservatives and additives to the food and drinks in America. For example, milk which was still not being pasteurized even though Louis Pasteur had invented the method in the 1860s, leaving bacteria in the milk, but that was not all that was being left in the milk, manure could be found, sticks, dirt, chalk to give it a white appearance and formaldehyde to preserve it longer. Children were getting sick and dying from drinking this milk, yet few were doing anything about it. But that was just one thing. Beer and wine were being preserved with salicylic acid, which could make people ill at certain doses. Butter was using borax, the cleaning product, to help itself while canned vegetables were using copper sulphate, a toxic metallic salt that makes pickles greener. And of course the huge debate over what was whiskey and how to label blended whiskeys that added dyes and differentiate between imitations that were just ethanol. Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Perdue, who had grown up on a farm in Indiana, in 1883 was hired on as the chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture. Of course, at the time there was no Secretary of Agriculture because it wasn't a cabinet position yet and wouldn't be until 1888. The head was known as the commissioner. There were several that were great to work with who supported his work, but there was one who slashed the budget to pieces for running experiments and that was Julius Sterling Morton. He didn't want him running experiments on food issues but concentrating only on farm concerns. Then in 1896 his biggest friend and then foe would be placed in the position of Secretary of Agriculture. James Wilson was interested in running experiments and fixing the food problem. But Wilson was also a friend to the businessman and didn't believe in hurting business if possible, while Wiley was becoming more and more of a crusader for the consumer. In 1901, Wiley had become even more famous when he experimented on preservatives and additives to food when he got a group of men to dine their three meals while taking a pill (or not if they were in the control group) in various degrees of strength. A newspaperman called them the Poison Squad. He tried out borax, salicylic acid, saccharine, sulfurous acid, and other things on the men. The results were the same. They all got sick and at least half if not more could not finish the test for these substances. After a long fight, with support from scientists, the American Medical Association, women's groups', and some businesses such as Heinz who used no preservatives and were being hurt by companies who did, a watered-down Pure Food and Drug Act would be passed in 1906 but the real fight would begin after that by trying to enforce it. They would sue Coke Cola for having the dangerous drug caffeine in it. But by demanding labeling they helped consumers. It wasn't the best law. Better laws would come along later. But it would get the ball rolling and Wiley was the father of this first law. Wiley could be stubborn and unbending especially in his later years when he became even more protective of "his" law, but he believed in protecting the people first. This is a fascinating read about a little-known law that we take for granted. The author does an excellent job of keeping you interested in a book that could easily slip into boring territory with talk of lab work and agriculture. I give this book four out of five stars. QuotesIn a talk to chemists visiting from Europe, he [Harvey Wiley] said, “Man’s highest ambition in this country is to strive to be the equal of woman.”-Deborah Blum (The Poison Squad: One Chemist Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century p 108)