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The Poison Squad: One Chemist's…
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The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (2018 original; edición 2019)

por Deborah Blum (Autor)

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4031762,248 (3.98)24
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.… (más)
Miembro:AngelaB86
Título:The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Autores:Deborah Blum (Autor)
Información:Penguin Books (2019), Edition: Illustrated, 352 pages
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The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century por Deborah Blum (2018)

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Mostrando 1-5 de 17 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
Man, while there are still many issues with the modern US food industry, I am SO beyond grateful that I wasn't born anywhere prior to the FDA becoming a thing because the descriptions of things from in "food" was horrifying ( )
  Moshepit20 | Sep 20, 2023 |
I really enjoyed Deborah Blum's [b:The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York|7054123|The Poisoner's Handbook Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York|Deborah Blum|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442933592l/7054123._SY75_.jpg|7305202] about poison in the Jazz Age, and this prequel, so-to-speak, of the turn of the century push for food purity was fascinating. Many popular non-fiction books read like an afterthought of stitched together essays masquerading as a book, but Blum's journalism background really shines. The narrative flows nicely from one section to the next, painting a complete picture of an America held captive to corporate interests and party politics on one side and activists, suffragettes, socialists and scientists on the other. This may feel a little on the nose for modern politics, but Blum never lets a parallel slip out, instead sticking strictly to history. She does so largely by focusing on the story of Dr. Wiley, the titular "one chemist," who forms the also titular, "poison squad" -- a randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of preservatives on food.

Perhaps my biggest complaints about the books are the flip side of its virtues. With a singular narrative focus, Blum loses the opportunities to draw parallels and also address how the FDA and food regulation has evolved since FDR. Wiley's campaign against preservatives like saccharin and benzoate is addressed with complete credulity analogously to his campaigns against formaldehyde and copper salts in food. Blum never even mentions that both are FDA-approved now (a tangent: as a professional biochemical geneticist, I use benzoate all the time as a nitrogen scavenger because it binds to the amino acid glycine to form hippuric acid, which is easily excreted in the urine. When I first started interpreting urine organic acid analyses, I turned to my mentor confused -- why do so many samples have hippurate in them? I assumed that some hippuric acid might be naturally occurring. Instead, my mentor handed me a diet soda bottle, clearly labeled "contained potassium benzoate to preserve flavor."). She also didn't address the modern "pure food" movement or how that may be different with a more robust FDA who does approve the chemical additives... ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
I 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. ( )
  KingRat | Mar 12, 2023 |
Listened to the audio book. I'm so thankful for the work and dedication of Wiley to fight for safe food and accurate labeling. It is appalling what used to be acceptable to do to food. Very eye opening. ( )
  LittleSpeck | Jan 15, 2023 |
Deborah 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. ( )
  prudencegoodwife | Aug 13, 2022 |
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The sixth of seven children, Harvey Washington Wiley was born on April 16, 1844 in a log cabin on a small farm in Kent, Indiana, about a hundred miles northeast of the farm where Abraham Lincoln had grown up a few decades earlier.
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O we're the merriest heard of hulks / That ever the world has seen; / We don't shy off from your / Rough on Rats or even from Paris green / We're on the hunt for a toxic dope / That's certain to kill sans fail / But it is a tricky elusive thing and / Knows we are on its trail / For all the things that could kill / We've downed many a gruesome wad / And still we're gaining a pound a day / For we are the Pizen Squad - Song of the Poison Squad by S.W. Gillilan
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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.

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