Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, Everybody. One of our episodes this week was
Speaker 1: on the Swill Milk scandal, and so we thought for
Speaker 1: our Saturday Classic today we would stick with this theme
Speaker 1: of adulterated food. This episode is from previous hosts Sarah
Speaker 1: and Bablina and it came out on May eleven of eleven.
Speaker 1: It's on chemist Harvey Washington Wiley, who studied effects of
Speaker 1: food additives on human volunteers who became known as the
Speaker 1: Poison Squad. His work eventually contributed to the passage of
Speaker 1: the Pure Food and Drug Act of nineteen o six,
Speaker 1: and he continued to campaign against food adulteration afterward. So overall,
Speaker 1: at least in my opinion, this episode is not quite
Speaker 1: as gross as some of the things that we talked
Speaker 1: about in the Swill Milk episode, but it does cover
Speaker 1: the physical effects of eating things like borax. We've also
Speaker 1: had various listener requests to do an episode on the
Speaker 1: Poison Squad, so for those folks particularly enjoy Welcome to
Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Deblina
Speaker 1: Chok reboarding and I'm Sair Douting and when you walk
Speaker 1: into the grocery store these days, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: things to kind of worry about, I guess. I mean,
Speaker 1: should you buy organic, should you buy foods that are
Speaker 1: grass fed? Cage free? Is what you're looking at, locally grown?
Speaker 1: Just to name a few problems you might face, because
Speaker 1: there's pretty serious health related food concerns to like mercury
Speaker 1: levels and fish and bacterial contamination. You know, there was
Speaker 1: that news recently that half of all the meat sold
Speaker 1: in the United States is tainted with drug resistance staff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that freaking out. Apparently some people aren't very concerned about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess that's a big statistic, but
Speaker 1: it sounds weird. And still, you know, we have the
Speaker 1: salmonilla egg recall a few years ago, there was the
Speaker 1: peanut butter scare. Yea when you couldn't eat certain granola bars.
Speaker 1: Just I remember my mom calling me up about that, like,
Speaker 1: don't eat need bars, I might have peanut butter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you know, we have a lot to think about. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's not a perfect system right now as far
Speaker 1: as food regulation goes, but it still seems to have
Speaker 1: come a long way from what it was about a
Speaker 1: hundred years ago in the US when there were really
Speaker 1: no labeling requirements, no safety tests, and no one really
Speaker 1: monitored additives. Those substances like borax, which is actually used
Speaker 1: in detergent and things like that, and formalde hyde um
Speaker 1: and these were used as food preservatives at the time,
Speaker 1: and formalde hyde in your food sounds pretty ridiculous if
Speaker 1: you've ever done like a dissection in biology class or
Speaker 1: something and smelled the stuff. But that's when the chemist
Speaker 1: Harvey W. Wiley came into the picture, because obviously, if
Speaker 1: you have stuff like borax and formaldehyde in your food,
Speaker 1: things need work. Yeah, So Wiley stepped in, first mainly
Speaker 1: trying to change things solely through legislation, and then through
Speaker 1: something that came to be known as the Poison Squad,
Speaker 1: and that was a kind of human experiment through which
Speaker 1: Wiley tested substances used in food that he believed to
Speaker 1: be harmful. And this became kind of a media sensation
Speaker 1: of attention. Yeah, as it would. So we're going to
Speaker 1: take a look at how the Poison Squad worked and
Speaker 1: what it accomplished, and also why Wiley is considered by
Speaker 1: many to be the founding father of the U S
Speaker 1: feud and drug administration. Yeah, but first we're going to
Speaker 1: give a little background on Wiley. He's kind of a
Speaker 1: pioneer man almost, who was born in eighteen forty four
Speaker 1: in a log cabin on a frontier farm in Indiana,
Speaker 1: So real classic beginnings. And in addition to being a father,
Speaker 1: his father was a Campbellite preacher, So Wiley grew up
Speaker 1: in this real evangelical background with a strong emphasis on
Speaker 1: doing the right thing, which is clearly going to come
Speaker 1: into play in his later career. Yeah. But before that
Speaker 1: career took off, he went to Hanover College in Indiana
Speaker 1: in the eighteen sixties. He dropped out briefly in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty four to serve in the Union Army during the
Speaker 1: Civil War, but he never really saw combat, so he
Speaker 1: returned to finish up at and Over and then went
Speaker 1: on to get a medical degree at Indiana Medical College,
Speaker 1: and he studied medical science for a year at Harvard,
Speaker 1: so very educated. Yeah, and from there he got a
Speaker 1: professorship in chemistry at Purdue University. And it's while he
Speaker 1: was there that he helped write a report for the
Speaker 1: Indiana State Board of Health condemning adulterated foods and his
Speaker 1: main thoughts and main research had to do with honey,
Speaker 1: and he found basically that companies were adulterating honey, passing
Speaker 1: it off as pure honey but really adding glucose. In fact,
Speaker 1: the product they were selling was mostly glucos and he
Speaker 1: was pretty disturbed by this. So this is the first
Speaker 1: time he caused a little bit of a controversy, but
Speaker 1: it was not the last time. No, this experience is
Speaker 1: what caused the interest in food adulteration that Wiley would
Speaker 1: have throughout his entire career and his life. In eight three,
Speaker 1: he actually got a chance to take that interest to
Speaker 1: the national level when he was offered the position of
Speaker 1: Chief Chemist in the Department of Agriculture in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: And the came at a good time too, because he
Speaker 1: had some trouble with the administration at Perdue around that time,
Speaker 1: trying to make an exit. Yeah exactly. I think it
Speaker 1: was something about riding a bike on campus and that
Speaker 1: he didn't think that was like fitting for a professor.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, how scandalous. Definitely. So his main job as
Speaker 1: the chief Chemist was to support new agricultural industries, because
Speaker 1: this was, after all, a government job. That's the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that he'd be expected to do, but he
Speaker 1: still followed his own passion and developed this test for
Speaker 1: food purity on the side something so he could look
Speaker 1: at what people were really putting into food. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: eventually he took his fight for federal food regulation to Congress.
Speaker 1: His work contributed to several pure food bills in the
Speaker 1: eighteen eighties and the eighteen nineties. So this is what
Speaker 1: we're referring to when we talked about legislation that he
Speaker 1: contributed to. But none of these bills that none of
Speaker 1: them went anywhere. They all kind of failed. So something
Speaker 1: had to be done though, I mean, adulteration of food
Speaker 1: was a real problem. There were instances of sanded sugar,
Speaker 1: watered milk, sawdust, enhanced flour, which just sounds crazy, just
Speaker 1: to name a few things that were problems at the time.
Speaker 1: And some states had laws against these things, but with
Speaker 1: the growth of nationwide food distribution, it was really hard
Speaker 1: to enforce them once they crossed state lines. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: people didn't know where their food was even coming from.
Speaker 1: And according to an article by Bernard A. Weissburger in
Speaker 1: American Heritage, late nineteenth century technology brought more additives into
Speaker 1: the picture too, So it wasn't just these things being
Speaker 1: added like sugar or watered milk, it was coloring agents
Speaker 1: and preservatives like copper sulfate and flour bleaches, and Wiley's
Speaker 1: first big concern that we mentioned earlier borax. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: since manufacturers weren't required to prove preservative safety, Wiley asked
Speaker 1: Congress in for money to do the tests himself. He
Speaker 1: wanted to learn, quote, whether preservatives should ever be used
Speaker 1: or not, and if so, what preservatives and in what quantities.
Speaker 1: So he thought he could prove that these substances were
Speaker 1: harmful that Congress in the public would finally support national
Speaker 1: regulation policies. So that was the goal here, third party
Speaker 1: testing essentially. So in nineteen o two, Congress gave Wiley
Speaker 1: funding to start these tests that he wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and they were known officially as the Hygiene I Table Trials.
Speaker 1: And the way they worked is kind of medieval seeming almost.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the King's Food Tester. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really interesting. Actually, widely recruited twelve young healthy men. They
Speaker 1: were all volunteers actually from the Department of Agriculture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they weren't tricked in any way, they were all in
Speaker 1: their twenties though, and that was so they'd be sturdy
Speaker 1: enough for the experiment, or so widely determined. And for
Speaker 1: a span of six months, those twelve men agreed to
Speaker 1: eat only meals that were prepared in a test kitchen
Speaker 1: that Wiley set up in the basement of the Agriculture
Speaker 1: department building. Yeah, but here's the catch. Each meal would
Speaker 1: include one suspect ingredient that Hilie wanted to test, So
Speaker 1: for example, the borax. Yeah, that's going to make you
Speaker 1: question this free meal deal a little bit. Yeah, definitely
Speaker 1: sounds good up until that point. But another aspect of
Speaker 1: it was that the men also pledged to eat all
Speaker 1: their meals at the Hygiene I table, and that was
Speaker 1: that meant that they were eating at a dining table
Speaker 1: in a dining room that was set up next to
Speaker 1: the test kitchen. So this was all in the basement together.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking this is the counterpart two NPR splendid table. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Not very pleasant though. So they agreed that they would
Speaker 1: not consume any outside foods or beverages to except for water,
Speaker 1: and even that had to be measured and reported. I mean,
Speaker 1: the deal was they didn't want to get sick from
Speaker 1: something the guy was snacking on the side exactly, And
Speaker 1: each participant had to record his weight, temperature, and pulse
Speaker 1: before each meal and what he ate. They also had
Speaker 1: to submit urine and fece samples daily. A so not
Speaker 1: definitely gross all around, very gross, but I would say
Speaker 1: that's probably the most unpleasant aspect of the daily ritual. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then also doctors would examine the participants and note
Speaker 1: any symptoms in case these additives were having negative effects
Speaker 1: on a weekly basis. Right, So all the volunteers obviously
Speaker 1: knew that they were eating potential poisons, but they all
Speaker 1: signed to these waivers that absolved the government from any
Speaker 1: liability in case they got ill. And so initially Wiley's
Speaker 1: approach was to make it pretty random, to mix the
Speaker 1: potential poison, whatever the poison of the week was, into
Speaker 1: the food, which was supposed to be pretty good too.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that's why they got these volunteers
Speaker 1: in the first place. Yeah, I've seen different examples mentioned
Speaker 1: roast chicken, braised beef, buttered asparagus, so and a little
Speaker 1: borax on the side. Well, if you forget about the borax,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a decent deal. But even though the
Speaker 1: men weren't told which food item Wiley put the substance
Speaker 1: such as borax in, they ended up avoiding that particular
Speaker 1: item in the first couple of trials. So it tastes funny. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For example, if Wiley put box and the butter, they
Speaker 1: wouldn't eat it because they would notice it. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure how different how different the taste would be, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you would realize, oh, that's where the poison is and
Speaker 1: move on to your roast chicken and asparagus meal. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So then what Wiley did pretty early in the trial
Speaker 1: as he changed his approach he started putting the preservatives
Speaker 1: in these gelatin capsules instead, and this meant that the
Speaker 1: poison was no longer hidden. But surprisingly, really surprisingly to me,
Speaker 1: the men took them willingly whiley put them out in
Speaker 1: a serving bowl with each meal, with the understanding that
Speaker 1: if they were taken in the middle of the meal,
Speaker 1: they would dissolve in the digested food, so it would
Speaker 1: be pretty much the same as eating it actually mixed
Speaker 1: in with a food item. Yeah. And another interesting point,
Speaker 1: Whyley didn't make the guinea pigs take all the risk
Speaker 1: he took. He joined in for many of the meals.
Speaker 1: To imagine, that endeared him to the twelve volunteers a
Speaker 1: little bit. So obviously, these hygiene e table trials become
Speaker 1: a national sensation pretty quickly. In the newspapers think of
Speaker 1: of an even better name for the whole thing and
Speaker 1: dubbed the volunteer test subjects the Poison Squad, and the
Speaker 1: experiment really did have a show like quality to it.
Speaker 1: The volunteers even had their own slogan, It was none
Speaker 1: but the brave can eat the fair. And people even
Speaker 1: wrote songs about them. Yeah. One was called the Song
Speaker 1: of the Poison Squad, and it was by the lou
Speaker 1: doc Stater minstrels. I hope I said that right, all
Speaker 1: you lu doc Stater fans out there can let us
Speaker 1: know it. Yeah, right in and tell me if I
Speaker 1: said that correctly. But the song went like this or
Speaker 1: this was one verse. Oh they may get over it,
Speaker 1: but they'll never look the same. That kind of bill
Speaker 1: of fare would drive most men insane. Next week he'll
Speaker 1: give them mothballs a La Newburgh or else. Plain. Oh
Speaker 1: they may get over it, but they'll never look the same. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so pretty catchy there, I like to think they might
Speaker 1: have played that at the dinner table or something. But
Speaker 1: some people obviously put a humorous spin on this whole thing,
Speaker 1: and the experiment even made its way into variety acts
Speaker 1: of the time. Um probably understandably so, because research at
Speaker 1: the dinner table didn't really seem that science e. It
Speaker 1: seemed kind of fun. Well not that fun, I guess,
Speaker 1: but different at least, yeah, compared to most traditional scientific
Speaker 1: study in a lab coat kind of situation. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you could. I could imagine this being like a
Speaker 1: reality show, couldn't you. I mean, I think it is
Speaker 1: a reality show across between Fear Factor and Top Chef
Speaker 1: or something. So you can imagine a million people wanting
Speaker 1: to tune in, so to speak, and see what's happening
Speaker 1: every week with these guys. And Wiley did worry about
Speaker 1: this at first because he wanted to take the research seriously,
Speaker 1: but he still knew that he needed to win over
Speaker 1: the public and get them involved the point of the
Speaker 1: whole thing, so he worked the banquet circuit, even making
Speaker 1: up little poems for listeners, like this one entitled I
Speaker 1: Wonder What's in it? And it goes the pepper perhaps
Speaker 1: contains coconut shells, and the mustard is cotton seed meal,
Speaker 1: the coffee and sooth of baked chickory smells and a
Speaker 1: terrapin taste like roast vell. Yeah, and he also started
Speaker 1: talking to reporters to about the experiment, so not just
Speaker 1: writing these catchy little poems, but giving them every detail
Speaker 1: of the effects that the poisons had on the men.
Speaker 1: And some of the examples of the effects were disturbing.
Speaker 1: I mean, borax proved to be not so bad. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it gave the men a little bit of indigestion, but
Speaker 1: over the long term and in increased amounts, it caused
Speaker 1: weight loss and reproductive system damage. So definitely some problems
Speaker 1: with a frequent food additive there. Formaldehyde was tested later,
Speaker 1: and Wiley had to end those tests pretty much right
Speaker 1: off the bat because the men got so sick they
Speaker 1: couldn't even get out of bed. So you know, that's
Speaker 1: good stuff for the news. Yeah, there's definitely some scare
Speaker 1: factor there. But the experiment went on for five years
Speaker 1: with different groups of volunteers, and eventually that publicity that
Speaker 1: they got definitely paid off. The public's growing awareness put
Speaker 1: pressure on the government and on June Thirtie nine six,
Speaker 1: President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drugs Act,
Speaker 1: which was largely written by Wiley, and it was the
Speaker 1: nation's first law regulating food and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Many called
Speaker 1: it the Wiley Act, not surprisingly enough. And while he
Speaker 1: got a new job out of it too. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: got to oversee this new acts administration, and that's kind
Speaker 1: of why he's known as the Father of the Pure
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Act, as you might imagine. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: things were still a little bit rough for him after
Speaker 1: this big triumph. Even he had a lot of adversaries
Speaker 1: in Congress, and he met with a lot of opposition
Speaker 1: while trying to enforce the Act, because you know, an
Speaker 1: Act on the books is only as good as its enforcement.
Speaker 1: So he even butted heads with the President and the
Speaker 1: Secretary of Agriculture and ended up resigning in nineteen twelve. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't so bad for his career because he
Speaker 1: ended up moving on to another really high profile position.
Speaker 1: He signed on as the director of the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation,
Speaker 1: and Health for Good Housekeeping magazine, and the magazine at
Speaker 1: that point had already created the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories
Speaker 1: to ensure the reliability of things that it featured in
Speaker 1: the magazine on its pages. So while he added his
Speaker 1: own lab and d C to the mix and continued
Speaker 1: his fight for pure food in that way, and he
Speaker 1: worked there for another nineteen years as the director before
Speaker 1: he died in nineteen thirty at the ripe old age
Speaker 1: of eighty six. So I guess some of those additives
Speaker 1: didn't have too bad of an effect on him for
Speaker 1: the long term. But during those years he led the
Speaker 1: fight for tougher government inspection of meat and for pure
Speaker 1: butter that was unadulterated with water, and for whole wheat flour,
Speaker 1: among a lot of other things. And interestingly, that good
Speaker 1: housekeeping tested and approved seal also became a real symbol
Speaker 1: of responsible industry of safe food, and it's still probably
Speaker 1: means something to consumers today, I'd say, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And Whiley's accomplishment is felt in other ways to borax sale,
Speaker 1: silic acid, formaldehyde, and copper sulfate, all of these things
Speaker 1: are long gone from the food additive market, which yeah,
Speaker 1: thank goodness. And that Pure Feud and Drug Act that
Speaker 1: Wiley championed that led to the more famous night Federal
Speaker 1: Food Drug and cosmetic act. So changes, big changes, definitely
Speaker 1: um and as performer members of the Poison Squad, no
Speaker 1: official follow up was done on how they did in
Speaker 1: later years, but anecdotal evidence showed that at least some
Speaker 1: of them did okay. One for example, a guy named
Speaker 1: William O. Robinson lived to be ninety four. So there,
Speaker 1: you didn't turn out so badly for everyone. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: like to imagine maybe Poison Squad was on their business
Speaker 1: cards or something after the fact. Oh yeah, I would
Speaker 1: wear that go into the restaurant business or something. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think you'd always be suspicious though, into
Speaker 1: the restaurant business, I would be. I'm suspicious now after
Speaker 1: reading this. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday.
Speaker 1: Since this episode is out of the archive, if you
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