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Article: The `Poison Squad' and the advent of food and drug regulation.
- Article from:
- FDA Consumer
- Article date:
- November 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"O, they may get over it but they'll never look the same, That kind of bill of fare would drive most men insane. Next week he'll give them mothballs, a la Newburgh or else plain; O, they may get over it but they'll never look the same."
Chorus from "Song of the Poison Squad" Lew Dockstader's Minstrels, October 1903
A century ago, 12 men sat down to a plate of food laced with poison and came back for more. Blessed by Congress, the dinner was the first in a series of meals containing steadily increasing doses of suspected toxic chemicals. What better animal to test toxicity in humans, than a human?
The infamous five-year human feeding experiment ...