The poison squad : one chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century / Deborah Blum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blum, Deborah, 1954- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wiley, Harvey Washington, 1844-1930.

Wiley, Harvey Washington.

United States. Bureau of Chemistry--Officials and employees--Biography.

United States.

United States. Bureau of Chemistry.

Food inspectors--United States--Biography.

Food inspectors.

Chemists--United States--Biography.

Chemists.

Food--Safety regulations.

Food.

Food--Safety measures.

Government policy.

Food additives--Safety regulations.

History.

Food additives.

Food additives--Safety regulations--United States--History.

Food--Safety measures--Government policy--United States.

Food--Safety regulations--United States.

Employees.

Local Subjects:

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xxi, 330 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Penguin Press, 2018.

Summary:

Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley set out to ensure food safety. He selected food tasters to test various food additives and preservatives, letting them know that the substances could be harmful or deadly. The tasters were recognized for their courage, and became known as the poison squad.

"By the end of the nineteenth century, food in America was increasingly dangerous--lethal, even. Milk and meat were routinely preserved with formaldehyde, a practice based on the embalming of corpses. Beer and wine were preserved with salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical; canned vegetables were greened-up by copper sulphate, a toxic metallic salt; rancid butter was made edible with borax, best known 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 adulterated and chemically 'improved' milk. Citizens--activists, journalists, scientists, and wornen's groups--began agitating for change. But although 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 United States Department of Agriculture, 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 inimitable Dr. Wiley campaigning tirelessly for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking author Upton Sinclair, who fought to reveal the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land as 'Dr. Wiley's Law.' Deborah 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."--Dust jacket.

Contents:

"I wonder what's in it"

A chemical wilderness

Cheated, fooled, and bamboozled

The beef court

What's in it?

Only the brave

Lessons in food poisoning

The yellow chemist

The jungle

The poison trust

Of ketchup and corn syrup

Excuses for everything

Of whiskey and soda

The love microbe

The adulteration snake

The history of a crime.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-319) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Schaffer fund bookplate.

Other Format:

Online version: Blum, Deborah, 1954- Poison squad.

ISBN:

9781594205149

1594205140

OCLC:

1024107182