Toxicology Emerges in Public Health Crises
Toxicology Emerges in Public Health Crises
This chapter describes how toxicology emerged with the rise of public health crises in Chicago. With the industrialization of meat production in Chicago and the rise of novel technologies in agriculture to combat the threat of insect invasion, many safeguards fell by the wayside. Americans found their health and welfare compromised by pesticides and adulterated drugs. By the 1930s, the president called on Congress to revisit food and drug legislation and forge a law with greater power to protect Americans. After the Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy, in which 93 individuals died after ingesting a contaminated drug, legislators passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938. During and after World War II, the Division of Pharmacology at the FDA applied the new techniques of toxicology to DDT, a new insecticide introduced for the control of insect-borne disease.
Keywords: Chicago crisis, food legislation, meat production, industrialisation, FFDCA, Elixir Sulfanilamide, DDT
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