Episode Transcript Aarati: 0:10 Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Smart Tea Podcast, where we talk about the lives of scientists and innovators who shaped the world. How's it going, Arpita? Arpita: 0:19 It's going. I feel like this week was Three years long. Aarati: 0:24 This week has been such a rollercoaster. It's been just insane. I'm just, like, my emotions are tapped out. All my emotions. I, I just don't know what to do anymore. Arpita: 0:36 same. I feel so drained and I guess on that, up of that roller coaster, um, happy birthday. Ha ha ha ha. Aarati: 0:48 know, Arpita: 0:48 does it feel to be a year older and wiser? Ha ha ha Aarati: 0:52 I don't know about wiser, but Arpita: 0:54 ha. Definitely. Aarati: 0:56 I don't know. It, it almost, it's, it's always bittersweet. My birthday for a while now has always been tied to negative things in my life. It's always been like around election time, which is emotions are running high with a lot of people. And, you know, especially this year, the election obviously didn't go the way we wanted it to, and everyone is still reeling from that. And then all my friends are like, Oh, but by the way, happy birthday. Arpita: 1:25 ha. Aarati: 1:26 Thanks. Thanks for remembering me. I appreciate the thought. And I know everybody's like, emotions are in such a negative state, there's like so much depression and anger and sadness. And then they're like, oh, but we still love you. Arpita: 1:41 It's like such a mixed bag. One of my really good friends, you know. His birthday was yesterday and he said the exact same thing. He was just like, I think I want to, um, take a rain check on my birthday and celebrate it later. And I was like, honestly, that's fine by me. Like, I totally get it. Like, this feels like a bad week to do that. Aarati: 2:00 Yeah. It's just like, you can't get into the celebratory mood, you know? Arpita: 2:04 Totally get it. Totally get it. Aarati: 2:06 On the bright side, I did get An e reader. I got a Kobo e reader. Um, it's like not a Kindle, but a Kobo. Yeah. It's like Kindle's competitor, So, I've just been diving into like fictional worlds to make myself. Yeah. Just forget about what's going on. I'm just like, yeah, I'm just going to read a fantasy book and forget that I live in reality for a little while. Arpita: 2:31 No, it's the best. I was a huge naysayer for a really long time. I was like, I only like physical books. I don't want a Kindle. And probably like three or four years now, I got a Kindle and I love it. It is like my like fifth appendage, honestly. I use it. All the time. I take it with me everywhere. If I'm waiting in line or on the train, I'm always reading my Kindle and it's just so convenient to have it for travel. And yeah, I read it all the time. Aarati: 2:59 For me, I'm like, the biggest thing is. I usually read before I go to bed, and it really does help me fall asleep, so I've been really, really happy with that. Yeah, just been like, cuddling under the blankets, reading until I fall asleep, and it's been great. Arpita: 3:14 Have you seen the, the stand that people have that they Aarati: 3:18 I have, Arpita: 3:20 That's what I've asked for for my birthday this year. Aarati: 3:22 Oh, really? Arpita: 3:24 Yeah. Aarati: 3:25 Okay, noted. Arpita: 3:26 I want stand and the Bluetooth remote. Um, because it's getting cold and I just want to keep my hands in my bed then just have the Kindle right above my eyeballs so that I can just click it. Aarati: 3:39 That sounds amazing. Arpita: 3:41 like, Logan's not going to see me all winter. I'm just going to be in my bed reading the Kindle. Aarati: 3:46 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but that was nice. I did like a lot of research as to like which e reader I wanted and stuff like that. And then my mom paid for it. So like, you know, cause that's what my family does. They, they don't do like surprise gifts at all. They're just like, what do you want? I'll get it for you. And I'm like, okay, that works. I guess at least, I know I'm getting something I want. So. Arpita: 4:08 No, A plus. Charge it to your mom's credit card. That's the best idea ever heard. Aarati: 4:13 Yeah, exactly, so it's like, she's like, okay, great, I did my duty, I gave you a gift, and I'm like, yes, you did, thank you, Arpita: 4:20 I always think so funny when my family does that too and it's like let's pretend that I'm not a grown ass adult Aarati: 4:26 I know, yeah, Arpita: 4:27 Who can buy my own things. Aarati: 4:30 I was dropping serious hints, I was like, so, I think I'm gonna get this at some point very soon. By the way, then they're like, yeah, exactly. Arpita: 4:40 A week away from my birthday. Aarati: 4:42 Exactly. I'm like, I think this is going to be like my birthday gift to myself. And they're like, Oh no, you can just use my credit card to buy it. And I'm like, great. That's what wanted all along. Perfect. Yeah. Arpita: 4:54 I love that. Aarati: 4:55 Yeah. Anywho. maybe we can further escape reality by talking about hopefully a good, uh, scientist story. So who do you have today? Arpita: 5:07 Yeah, I'm excited about today's. Uh, today is Harvey Washington Wiley, who I have never heard of before, but he is the reason that we have the FDA and our food is actually safe to eat. And so during research for this episode, I found some real gross stuff that used to happen with our food that no happens and it's thanks to him. Aarati: 5:30 Sounds amazing. I'm so excited. Arpita: 5:34 Ok so let's dive in. So Harvey Washington Wiley was born in a log cabin in Indiana in 1844. He was the sixth of seven kids, and he was raised on this big farm, and because they lived at that southernmost tip of Indiana. They were actually right across the river from Kentucky. And at that point in time, Kentucky still had slavery legal, but Indiana did not because they were part of the North. And so his parents were actually conductors on the Underground Railroad and they helped slaves escape into the North. So that's what his like childhood was involved in. Aarati: 6:11 Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Arpita: 6:13 I know. Aarati: 6:14 Amazing childhood. That's great. Arpita: 6:16 Yeah. So it's like pre civil war. So he actually went to college for one year at Hanover college in 1863. And then he enlisted with the union army in 1864. And then he fought in the American civil war. Um, and at the end of the war, he was a corporal and he went back to Hanover College in 1865, majored in humanities and graduated in 1867. Aarati: 6:41 Oh, that's interesting. He was a humanities major? Arpita: 6:45 yeah. Aarati: 6:45 So like not, not a science major from the get go. Cause so many of our stories start with like, oh, they were interested in nature, they were interested in science from a very young but right now it's sounding like he's very much like a social justice type of person. Arpita: 6:59 Yeah. It is. I'm not super sure what his transition was because the next thing that I found is that after that he went and got his MD. So I'm not really sure if there was like a specific course or something that he was interested in that like really spurred his interest into science. Aarati: 7:15 Yeah, or even just like he wanted to help people and like, again, a doctor is a very clear way to be able to help people. So maybe that was it. Okay. Interesting though, that's really interesting that his background wasn't always science. Arpita: 7:30 Right. It wasn't. It wasn't. Yeah. And so now he, now he has his MD. And so then after he gets his MD, he starts teaching chemistry at this medical college and he taught, Indiana Medical College's first lab course in chemistry. And then he moved on to a faculty position and he was appointed state chemist of Indiana. Aarati: 7:54 State chemist? What is that? Arpita: 7:56 Like, just like I think it's a regulatory government position, what it sounds like. So, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but like He then becomes a chemist for the federal government. So I think he's starting at the state level right now. And he's like inspecting, like anything that comes through either agriculture, food, drugs, anything. Aarati: 8:18 Do we have positions like that today where you can like be a scientist for the state or for the, for the government? Arpita: 8:26 We do, especially part of the department of agriculture. Aarati: 8:29 I suppose like if you work for the FDA now, or you work for the DOE or something like that, or some sort of federal government entity, then you would be a scientist for the state or for the government. That makes sense. Arpita: 8:43 Correct. Yeah, that's exactly right. Aarati: 8:46 I've just never heard the term like, chemist for the state. Like, I think it's throwing me off. Arpita: 8:52 Um, yeah, so then he takes a little break, he travels to Germany, and he spends some time learning with this man, August Wilhelm von Hoffman. And I'd never heard of him, but von Hoffman was someone who discovered a lot of different chemicals that are used in manufacturing and processing. Most of them are derived from tar, like aniline. Aarati: 9:15 hmm. Arpita: 9:16 It's used in dyes, rubber processing, and a lot of like mechanical manufacturing, which was kind of the turn of the century and was like really important around this like industrialization period. And so he works with Hoffman while he's in Germany. And he spends some time at the Imperial Food Laboratory in Bismarck working with this other man named Eugene Sell. And he's studying sugar chemistry. So the United States at this point was importing sugar from West Africa, from the Caribbean, all these different places, but they were trying to establish a domestic sugar industry. And so Harvey was trying to learn as much as he could. And so when he came back to Indiana and Purdue University, he was asked to analyze all the sugars and syrups that were available on the market to see how they were processed and to see if there was like any adulteration or how they could continue replicating this and scale the sugar industry. Aarati: 10:15 Wow, that's actually a really big undertaking when you think about it, because sugar is in like literally everything. So that's, that's a huge project. Arpita: 10:25 it is. At this point, it really wasn't as ubiquitous as we think about it today, like especially syrups, but regardless. They were, it was still a really big crop that they were trying to figure out how to not import, Aarati: 10:37 Yeah, I can totally imagine that because that would save you so much money if you could grow that at home. Yeah. Arpita: 10:43 Exactly. So he spends a few years studying sorghum, which is another grain, as well as sugar chemistry, just try to see if this would take off. And It didn't happen as we know, but in 1881, he published his first paper on what he found, which was that a lot of sugar was adulterated with glucose. So it wasn't actually all sucrose the way that we thought it was. Aarati: 11:07 So wait, So the sucrose is coming from the sugarcane plant, I'm assuming, and then chemists were adding glucose or was glucose like a byproduct of whatever processes that they did? Arpita: 11:20 They were passing off the glucose as sucrose. Aarati: 11:22 Oh, interesting. Arpita: 11:24 Yeah. So they were, it was like misrepresented. Aarati: 11:26 So they were like synthetically creating glucose and then using that in syrups and things instead of using sucrose, which would have been more expensive because they would have to import that. Arpita: 11:37 Correct. And it's, it's just sweet, but what they're doing is misrepresenting what they're selling. Aarati: 11:42 Ah, got you.. Yeah. So all these people are like, real sugar in this product and it's Arpita: 11:47 and it's not Exactly. Exactly right. Aarati: 11:50 Wow. Arpita: 11:51 So that leads me to the next point, which is, at this point in history, there were no laws on food safety or making sure that what's in your food is what you say it actually is. Um, there's no regulation. So at this point, Europe and Canada have some regulations, but the U. S. was really slow to the uptake. So, In the 19th century, there was a ton of resistance to the idea of the federal government, quote, policing what people eat. So it's like the similar ethos to like what we hear today of just like, nobody tells me what to do, individual rights, and this American mentality that is still so pervasive today. So this idea of the federal government regulating what's in food was met with a ton of resistance. Aarati: 12:32 I can totally see that. Like, given the political climate today and the things that we are arguing about and debating about today, I can totally see this argument happening and people saying like, you have no right to control what food I eat. Arpita: 12:46 That is exactly what's happening right now. However, Harvey sees that there's a real problem here. And so to help combat public opinion, he commissions a medical journalist to basically do some scicomm and to write out findings in an understandable manner for both the public and the politicians to help them learn about all of the dangers for what was in food currently, so some of the things that they found were embalmed milk. So they were adding formaldehyde to milk to keep it from going bad. Aarati: 13:18 Oh, my God. That just sounds horrible. Embalmed milk is like such a terrible phrase. Okay, Arpita: 13:25 Um, they were adding copper sulfate to canned green beans to make them more green. Um, there's all sorts of problems. Those are like two of the weird ones... Aarati: 13:36 Sorry. Copper sulfate. Like, that reminds me of the Statue of Liberty turning green. It's like that, that's literally what they're doing. Like, the Statue of Liberty is green because it's made of copper, and now they're adding that into green beans, Arpita: 13:49 Correct. To make them Aarati: 13:50 greener. Oxidizes But, like, that's a similar like Arpita: 13:53 So it's like when you open the can, the beans look greener. Um, Aarati: 13:57 Oh my God. Yikes. Arpita: 13:58 And the reason that both of these things were happening was that there's suddenly this industrialization problem. So usually people were not very far away from the food that was grown. And now that there was cities, there was this huge problem of trying to get large amounts of food to people in cities without it going bad. And this was pre refrigeration. It's pre preservatives or anything like that. So there was this big problem of trying to get food to people without it going bad. And so like formaldehyde to prevent bacteria from growing and then like trying to make the beans like once they start rotting actually look green. So then people will still eat them. Like a lot of these problems came from like a transportation logistics place. Aarati: 14:38 That makes a lot of sense. So it's like, I guess their heart was in the right place, but man, that's scary. Like, oh my god. Arpita: 14:47 This unfortunate story gets worse before it gets better. So even though they were publishing all these papers, people weren't really that concerned and paying attention. And when things changed was in 1898, when U. S. soldiers were fighting in Cuba during the Spanish American War. The food that they sent from the mainland to Cuba included meat that was chemically preserved. A lot of it was spoiled. A lot of it was, like, really bad to eat. The soldiers found bones and other unsavory parts of the animal and it caused a record number of illnesses, like dysentery and food poisoning. And these soldiers already kind of had malaria and yellow fever and basically all the things that you get from being in, like, a tropical climate. And so this didn't make things better. And the general, the Spanish American war general, Nelson Miles, was like, this is an outrage. Like, this cannot be the way that we are treating American soldiers who are fighting for our freedom. Um, and so he reported this to newspapers and generally tried to talk to anybody who would listen to make the public aware that these were the conditions the American soldiers were serving in, and this finally got the public alarmed and interested about what was actually in their food. Aarati: 16:05 Oh nice. Yeah, like tie it to patriotism. That'll, you know, get people off their butts. Yeah. Arpita: 16:11 I know, because there was that other episode that we had about MDMA and like, until people started using it for veterans and PTSD, it's like, no one actually gave a shit. And it was like, finally they came around. They were like, this is a population that people are universally sympathetic towards. Aarati: 16:26 Yeah. And also it's like, it's a military issue, right? You're weakening our military by giving them rotten food, like, that's not good. This is a security issue. This is a defense issue. It can actually affect how our military operates and how successful they are. Arpita: 16:44 Yeah, no, that's right. I was doing some digging to be like, what did, I mean, wars before this also didn't have refrigeration and preservatives. So what did they do? So I guess what actually ended up happening is they got local supplies for all previous wars, so it didn't have to transport very much. So they would like, take over some village or whatever. And then that's where they would get all their supplies from. And I guess that wasn't possible in Cuba, largely because of infrastructure. And so they had to ship everything in from the mainland that's where the problem came. Aarati: 17:18 That's really interesting. I'm just getting like images of these soldiers who are fighting this, battle and it's like, okay, it's dinner time. It's lunchtime and it looks good. Like, cause they probably added, it didn't look good. Like, cause I was imagining they added all these preservatives to make it at least look okay. But like, no? Arpita: 17:38 No. I read something that was like, it was like gray and like smelled bad and like, made people sick universally. It was like so bad. Aarati: 17:46 Oh no, I feel so bad for them. Arpita: 17:48 I know, it's disgusting. Aarati: 17:50 Okay, cause I thought it, I thought it would at least, like, look okay, but then it still made them sick because, you Arpita: 17:55 It didn't seem like it looked, smelled, or felt or anything Aarati: 17:59 Oh god, okay, that just makes it, like, 10 times worse because you can see that you're eating rotten food. Arpita: 18:05 Okay so then at this point Harvey gets offered the position of chief chemist in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, USDA in 1882. Um, so he's still really interested in this idea that food isn't safe, but what he's hired to do is to continue this sugar study. So they were really looking for someone to help further the study of sorghum because he had already worked on it. Um, and he took this job because he's still living in Indiana and he had applied for the job of president of the University at Purdue, but he didn't get the job because he was quote, too young and too jovial, unorthodox in his religious beliefs, and a bachelor. And so he had all these like pings against him. So then he ended up taking this job at the USDA and he moved to Washington. Aarati: 18:55 Oh my gosh. That's so funny. Like you're too happy to be a scientist. Arpita: 18:58 I know, I think they just needed like a solemn kind of old man. And he was that he was like a young, happy dude. And so he got passed over for the job. Aarati: 19:07 And also like unorthodox in his religious views is also an interesting phrase there. Arpita: 19:12 Yeah, he is an atheist and was public about it and they wanted someone who Aarati: 19:19 Yeah, Arpita: 19:20 was more traditional basically. He's in Washington and when he joins the USDA, there's a fewer than a dozen chemists at the agency. And to your point, chemists were responsible for all the agricultural chemistry issues in the U. S., including pesticides, crop growth, and soil quality. And he is officially working on this like sugar sorghum project, but he starts this side project that is trying to test the integrity of the American food supply. So he gets this tiny group of chemists who start doing a series of reports under this super boring name, Bulletin 13. And they look at dairy, canned vegetables, coffee and tea, wine and beer, spices, and processed meats, and they do a deep dive and they find really, really bad things. Aarati: 20:14 Oh dear. Okay, I'm bracing myself. Arpita: 20:16 So, Some of it's not that bad. So some of it was just actually fraud. So spices were like a big thing. So they were almost always adulterated so if you're buying cinnamon, you were actually buying brick dust. If you were buying pepper, you were potentially buying dirt or charred bits of stuff. Aarati: 20:35 Oh, my goodness. Arpita: 20:36 If you're buying coffee, sometimes you were just getting like ground up shells of something. People would grind up bones and charred lead into coffee. If you got flour, you're probably also getting gypsum, which is like a mineral. If you got milk, you got chalk or plaster of Paris and actual milk was full of tons of bacteria because there was no pasteurization or refrigeration. and like we said, people were putting formaldehyde in milk. And people are getting sick all the time, but like, no one really knows why. And the bottom line here is that everything that I just mentioned was totally legal. Like, there's no repercussion for this. Like, companies can do whatever they want, and there's no retribution for how food is being processed at all. Aarati: 21:21 Oh, my gosh. That's so scary. And I can just imagine all these food companies campaigning against regulations. And him fighting for, good science communications to kind of get the people to understand that, like, hey, that cinnamon that you're eating is actually Arpita: 21:38 Bricks. So that's what happens next. So like I said, there's no requirement to honestly label anything at the time, and he's noticing that there's tons of additives. So we've mentioned formaldehyde, but another one is salicylic acid, which when you eat it causes the lining of your stomach to bleed, among other things, like bad things happen your body. And so he's really trying to get people to care about the fact that there are poisons in their food that they're consuming. And it seems totally reasonable to us, but there's so much industry resistance this because they're trying to meet a bottom line like this would cause a ton of increases in their costs and nothing that he proposes because he works with the federal government. So like nothing he proposes, none of the measures he proposes even get like remote attention. He goes to Congress. They laugh him out of like, laugh him out of the room, basically. And at this point, a lot of Congress people are being funded by these big industry executives, food industry executives. So they're like, not incentivized to care all because they're getting funding from the food industry. So this is all this big circle where no one is paying attention to him. Aarati: 22:46 I feel like it's exactly what's still happening today, just on different issues. Arpita: 22:50 Totally. Just different issues. Aarati: 22:51 Yeah, just, it's kind of disheartening to know that it's always been like this, Arpita: 22:55 Yes. Yes. It's like insert issue here. Like yeah, totally. Aarati: 23:00 And then you have the whole industry on one side campaigning against him. You have the people who, in the Congress, who don't really care, and, or are being funded by these industries. And then you have the scientists that are, like, trying to get the public to care. It's a struggle to get them to understand or care about the issue. Yeah. Arpita: 23:17 that's exactly what ends up happening. So he is really trying to get the public on his side. So in 1902, he gets$5, 000 as a stipend to study the effects of a diet containing all of these preservatives. So to do this, he gets a bunch of human volunteers and he calls them his. quote, Poison Squad. And the tests that he conducts are called the Hygienic Table Trials. And so during these trials, he gets 12 young dudes basically, and they put vigorous and voracious and he fed them and gave them room and board in the basement of the agricultural department in Washington. And so before each meal, the men were weighed and any changes to their condition were noted. And so out of the 12, he got 6 of them where they were fed quote,"wholesome, unadulterated food" and then the other 6 were fed food laced with additives such as borax, formaldehyde, and salicylic acid, and every 2 weeks they switched. Aarati: 24:23 Oh, interesting. Okay. Arpita: 24:25 And so the subjects got. 5 a month and free food and board to be basically systemically poisoned. And they were told, they were told this is Aarati: 24:35 what they were going to do. Yeah. Arpita: 24:35 Like, it wasn't like a, Aarati: 24:37 But I can totally see young, young dudes being like, yeah, that sounds like a great, yeah, great deal, I'm in. Arpita: 24:43 They were so into it. I was like reading something about it and they were like, this sounds really bad, but he actually had people lining up to participate in this. Like, Aarati: 24:51 yeah, 100%, you're gonna pay me 5, give me room and board and food? Like, totally, Arpita: 24:56 I don't care it's gross. Aarati: 24:58 Yeah, I can, I can weather any storm, like, I'm strong and young and, yeah, sure, Arpita: 25:02 That's like exactly, there was like a quote from a letter. I don't think I ended up including it, but there was a quote from a letter of some guy asking to participate. He said that he had a stomach of iron or something. And he was like, yeah, I'll eat anything. Like I'll participate in your study. Aarati: 25:15 I can so see this. This is amazing. Arpita: 25:18 I know it's like, boys have really not changed at all in Aarati: 25:21 Yeah. Arpita: 25:22 130 years. Aarati: 25:24 Not at all. No, I can, I can, I can see college students doing this a hundred percent. Arpita: 25:28 exactly, it's like they're, yeah, they were just like, they were probably like in their early twenties. Yeah. Aarati: 25:32 Yeah, absolutely. Um, what was the. logic behind switching every two weeks? Was he, like, wanting to study patterns, like, to see if they got better and worse and better and worse? Arpita: 25:44 exactly. Exactly. Aarati: 25:48 Hi everyone, Aarati here. I hope you're enjoying the podcast. If so, and you wish someone would tell your science story, I founded a science communications company called Sykom, that's S Y K O M, that can help. Sykom blends creativity with scientific accuracy to create all types of science communications content, including explainer videos, slide presentations, science writing, and more. We work with academic researchers, tech companies, non profits, or really any scientist to help simplify your science. Check us out at sykommer. com. That's S Y K O M M E R dot com. Okay, back to the story. Arpita: 26:29 So the experiment started in November 1902. And even though they started in really high spirits by Christmas, they were pretty sad. So there was a Washington Post article from December 26th, and it reads, quote,"The borax diet is beginning to show its effect on Dr. Wiley's government fed boarders at the Bureau of Chemistry. And last night, when the official weights were taken just before the Christmas dinner, the six guests who were taking the chemical course showed a slight decrease and lost their flesh. On Christmas Day, when probably everybody else in Washington gained more or less from feasting and was regarded by the boarders themselves as doubly significant." end quote. Aarati: 27:08 Oh my gosh, poor babies! Arpita: 27:10 So they're real sad. Yeah. They're sad. Aarati: 27:13 Poor guys. Like you get feast laced with borax. That's Arpita: 27:17 That's exactly what it was. I think there was like actually like a menu on, hold on, I had it somewhere. Oh yeah. It's like applesauce. Borax, soup, borax, turkey, borax, canned string beans, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, turnip, borax, chip beef laced with borax, cream gravy, cranberry sauce, celery, pickles, rice pudding, milk, formaldehyde, bread and butter, tea, coffee, borax. Aarati: 27:43 Oh my god. Arpita: 27:45 I like did not make that up, that's like actually from the Washington Aarati: 27:48 That is crazy. Oh my goodness. What, what a crazy menu. That sounds like a delicious Christmas feast. Arpita: 27:56 So the guys who were participating in the study are the ones who talked to the press and because Harvey was really trying to like preserve the integrity of this study, he finally issued like an order saying that they couldn't talk about it until he finished the study. But even though he said this, people had already talked to the press and the public were interested and tons of people were talking and writing about this. Aarati: 28:19 You know what this of? Is, have you, have you seen that, uh, documentary, Supersize Me? Arpita: 28:26 Mm hmm. Aarati: 28:26 Yeah, that's what this reminds me of. That guy eating, like, McDonald's for every single meal, and like, testing his weight and his cholesterol and all these, like, things. Arpita: 28:36 That's more or less what's happening here. Aarati: 28:38 And then everyone gets really interested in what's in my fast food and how does it, yeah, yeah. It's like you need to actually see the effects firsthand, kind of. Arpita: 28:49 In like a A-B test. Aarati: 28:50 Yeah, like a national experiment that everyone can see the results of in real time. Arpita: 28:57 Exactly. No, exactly. Harvey is obviously buoyed by all of this and becomes a crusader in building support for national food and drug regulation. And he enacted, a bill which eventually passed in 1906 called the Pure Food and Drugs Act. And the enforcement of this act was given to the Bureau of Chemistry because of their unique scientific qualifications to examine food and drugs. So the very first food and drug inspectors in the U. S. were hired to complement the work of laboratory scientists. And that was like, they're inspecting things basically on a very, very small scale. And this inspection program changed the way that we thought about food supply. Within about a decade or so. So this is like kind of looking forward, but that's kind of like the long term sequelae and how this was enforced. Um, and this is the act that he thought of and initially proposed, which finally passed in 1906. Aarati: 29:56 So, are they, since it's food and drug, are they also looking at medicines now,? Arpita: 30:01 Yeah, I think they technically are, but this is pre FDA. Aarati: 30:06 Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's pre FDA, but I can see that even with medications, if you think you're getting, you know, ibuprofen or something, but it's actually laced with chalk or something like that, you know. I can totally see that happening if there's no regulations at this point, and so I was just wondering if they've already figured that out about medications and are adding this into the bill that they have right now. Arpita: 30:30 Um, yeah, definitely. So the whole point of the Pure Food and Drug Act was really just to analyze what was in things or like look at processing. There were still a lot of issues on preservatives. And like how things were preserved, which is then his like next problem here. There was also a lot of issues around enforcement. So that was like another concern. So even though it existed by the time it finally passed, it had been ping ponged around Congress for so long that like there were limited funds, it was actually just like, like the idea was there, but it still wasn't as robust as it needed to be Aarati: 31:09 Makes sense. Yeah, it's just the beginnings. Yeah, Arpita: 31:12 Just the beginnings. So like I mentioned, preserving chemicals, which really weren't addressed in the Pure Food and Drugs law, continue to be controversial. And so the Secretary of Agriculture appointed a board of consulting scientists to repeat Harvey's human trials of the preservatives. So rather than looking at additives, they were looking at preservatives. And so they're looking at the use of saccharin and bleached flour and caffeine and benzoate of soda, like, these are all things that were used as preservatives and they were trying to see how safe they were. And so, under Harvey's leadership,(he's still working at this Bureau of Chemistry at the USDA) this whole department starts to really grow. Now there's more funding, there's more interest, and he started out with a budget of only like a hundred thousand dollars, and then by 1906, when the pure food and drug law passed, he was up to almost a million dollars in the budget. Aarati: 32:13 Amazing. Arpita: 32:13 Yeah, so it's like starting gain a ton more traction. Aarati: 32:16 Yeah. Arpita: 32:18 So originally when he first started out thinking about, you know, food safety to begin with he was really just trying to get foods labeled correctly and making sure that people understood what they were eating Aarati: 32:28 Mm hmm. Arpita: 32:30 But then he realized that actually like something shouldn't be even allowed at all. Aarati: 32:34 Yeah. Arpita: 32:35 It's not just awareness. Like we should just not permit these things to be consumed. Aarati: 32:39 Yeah. You shouldn't give people the choice to eat bricks if they want to. Like, that should just not be an option. Arpita: 32:45 So he proposed another food bill, which was really specifically this one doesn't even really have a name. It's like Bill 1202. And it was basically about this, like banning certain chemicals, and it didn't even register a vote. It was defeated by food lobbyists. And so to counteract this, Harvey very smartly got the support of a lot of female groups. And at this point, the women cannot vote. They have no political power. And he knows this, but he also knows that they're very smart. They're very organized, and they also have a lot of domestic influence. So they can choose what things are being bought and other women are going to listen to them. And so now there's this push towards at least public recognition that food is unsafe. Aarati: 33:32 That's so smart. Because this this is the time when women are like really the domestic household, you know, people who, buy food, cook the food, are responsible for the health of the family and the well being of the family. So that's really, really smart. Arpita: 33:45 Right. So now they're trying to exert like consumer pressure here. And so, the cookbooks of the time, there's this cookbook writer. Her name is Fanny Farmer. And she says like, okay, like you should add coffee to this recipe, but just be aware that it might not actually be coffee or like, maybe don't use milk in this recipe because milk might make you sick. And she started campaigning under this big slogan basically of wanting pure food. And so then this spilled into wider community health and welfare calling for public control of the food system to be like, this is not safe. Like we are eating unsafe things. Aarati: 34:23 Yeah, yeah. I bet she also maybe could endorse certain foods that she knew was safe, like use this brand of butter because it is actually butter and it's not like, you know, some weird chemical. Arpita: 34:35 No, you're spot. So Heinz, the ketchup brand is actually the first one of the first companies to actually get behind this. And so she does endorse Heinz because they changed their recipe for tomato ketchup to replace all their chemical preservatives and then just use vinegar. And they started in putting all of these different hygienic practices into their factory. And they were like, no, you're right. Like we should definitely have safe food practices. So then this is one of the very first large food brands that gets their seal of approval. Aarati: 35:04 Oh, wow. Arpita: 35:05 So around the same time, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was published, which is it revealed a lot of inside information on the slaughterhouses of Chicago. So Sinclair first published this work in a socialist newspaper called Appeal to Reason as a call to arms about the plight of the worker, and he's basically trying to explain that the working conditions in slaughterhouses are really bad. He finally gets a New York City publisher to agree to publish it, and he has all these, like, descriptions about how horrible meat processing is, and the mold that's growing on the meat still goes into, like, the ham, and the disease, and, like, the rotting animals that go into the sausage, like, he tells this really really graphic story. Aarati: 35:52 It's gruesome. Yeah. Arpita: 35:54 Yes. And this publisher in New York sends fact checkers to Chicago to be like, is this what's actually happening? And the fact checkers come back and they're like, uh, it's even worse than he says it is. Aarati: 36:06 Oh, no. Arpita: 36:07 So they send this book to the president at the time, Theodore Roosevelt. And then this book becomes this huge sensation. He was really hoping to get people's public sympathy about the workers. Aarati: 36:19 Yeah. Arpita: 36:19 No one gave a shit about the workers and they were just like, what is happening in the meat industry? And there's this famous quote from Upton Sinclair. Quote,"I aimed for the public's heart. And by accident, I hit it in the stomach" end quote. Aarati: 36:34 That's a great quote. I love that But it's so true. Like I can totally see that people would be like, oh my god That's what oh I'm eating because it directly affects them and they wouldn't care about Arpita: 36:45 They Aarati: 36:45 like these workers that they don't know or yeah, like, why would you? Yeah, I can totally see that. I Arpita: 36:51 They do not care. And so someone sends a copy to Theodore Roosevelt, and he's reading this book, and he was involved in this whole Cuba incident, way back in 1898, and so then now he has, like, flashbacks from that, and he's like, oh, shoot, like, this is really bad. And so In 1906, they passed the Meat Inspection Act, which controls slaughterhouses, and the Food and Drug Act, which is looking at the prohibition of additives. So now we have the Pure Food and Drug Law, which is looking at making sure that we know what's in our food. Like, just the basics. Listing ingredients, the Meat Inspection Act, and then also the Food and Drug Act that's looking at additives. So we're slowly but surely moving in the right direction. Aarati: 37:34 We're making some good progress here. Arpita: 37:36 So the first additive that was banned, was formaldehyde. And it was found to be very dangerous to ingest. And this is something that slowly started being phased out of food. Aarati: 37:46 Yeah. I can't, I can't even imagine people eating formaldehyde. Like, that's just Arpita: 37:51 It also smells so bad, like, formaldehyde, like, smells disgusting, Aarati: 37:56 It smells so gross. Arpita: 37:58 It smells so bad. I mean it is a preservative so. Aarati: 38:01 You know, in biology class where you have to do, like, dissections and stuff? I was so close to gagging because, I just couldn't stand the smell. I had to leave the classroom for a minute just to like, breathe some fresh air. And I'm not the student to do that. But I was just like, I have to leave right now or I'm going to throw up, literally. And I just needed to exit the classroom, stand in the hall for a minute. Gather myself. Yeah. Arpita: 38:25 Cadaver lab was the worst, I hated it so much. Aarati: 38:28 And I can't imagine eating that. Oh, uh, Yeah, So gross. Okay, so it makes sense. That's the first one on the chopping block Arpita: 38:37 It's the first one on the chopping block. And so now he has a new target, and he targets Coca Cola in 1908, and originally there was like a problem here of their using cocaine, but that had actually already stopped by 1909, but the thing that he was fighting against was the excessive use of caffeine and at this point, they knew that caffeine was really addictive and they were like, we're giving coke to children. And so he sues, or he, like, files a suit against Coca Cola, and they went to trial in 1911, where Coca Cola argued that it could be drunk with no ill effects and it wasn't addictive and it wasn't misleading and it didn't have cocaine. The courts decided that Harvey had gone too far, and Coke was not found to be guilty of breaching the Food and Drug Act, and the president at the time, President Taft, was pressured into firing Harvey, because this was just such a landmark case and they didn't win. And so he resigns, his leadership of the chemistry bureau and he's, in a way, a little bit relieved because from the beginning, the Pure Food and Drugs Act was such a big problem, and enforcing it was such a nightmare, and he just fought such a good fight for now so many years, and he was honestly kind of over it. And despite all this public pressure that they were saying against President Taft, saying like that Harvey was so valuable, they're like, how could you possibly do this? Aarati: 40:07 Yeah. Arpita: 40:07 He ends up leaving the Bureau. Aarati: 40:10 Oh, that's kind of sad, but I totally understand. It's like a David versus Goliath kind of Arpita: 40:14 Yes, Aarati: 40:15 he's just tired. Arpita: 40:17 Exactly. And it's like he unfortunately leaves on a little bit of a low note, but Aarati: 40:22 Mm hmm. Arpita: 40:23 It is what it is. Aarati: 40:24 Yeah. Arpita: 40:25 Um, and then he takes over the laboratories of Good Housekeeping magazine. And so I'm sure you've seen before, there's the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, uh, like on a certain product. He started that and he was one of the chemists at Good Housekeeping who analyzed and tested countless products and help people choose the best things for their home. And his goal, I know he was working for a corporation, but his goal was really to educate the public and make sure that they were consuming the best possible things for themselves and their homes and their families. So he really cared about that. Aarati: 41:00 That's really smart. And so like every product that had this little badge on it, like when you went to the grocery store, you could look for that seal of approval and know that you were buying some quality product. Arpita: 41:09 Something that was good for you and good Exactly. Um, and he stayed with Good Housekeeping then for 18 years. So that was like the rest of his career. Yeah. Aarati: 41:19 Wow. That's amazing. Arpita: 41:21 And on June 30th, 1930, um, he died in his home in Washington, D. C., and he's now buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. Eventually, we replaced the Pure Food and Drug Act with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1938, which gave way to the modern FDA. We've had tons of amendments to the FDA's power, including the Food Traceability Enhancement Act and trying to understand all of the different components and processes that go into our food and drugs and the things that we put in our body, but we still have a lot of problems in our FDA, as we both know. That makes it difficult to enforce a lot of different aspects of food and drug safety, but it is one of like the biggest entities into protecting all things that go inside of our body. And the reason it exists is because of Harvey Washington Wiley. Aarati: 42:18 That is amazing. Arpita: 42:20 Yeah. Aarati: 42:21 Wow. Arpita: 42:21 That's the story! Aarati: 42:23 That's just, that's such an amazing, like, I didn't, I didn't know it started with, formaldehyde in food. That's crazy. Arpita: 42:30 It started in a really bad place. Aarati: 42:31 To me. Yeah. And, and now I'm like, you know, it just brings up for me, the whole argument where people are feeling like vaccines are unsafe and I'm like, I don't think that they would allow mercury in vaccines. Like we've come so far, we've come so far. Like that's the whole point of the FDA to make sure that these kinds of chemicals don't end up in our bodies in unsafe amounts, like, you know, it's such rigorous testing, and it's so important to keep funding that kind of research So, Arpita: 43:05 I thought his whole, like, crusade against, like, fighting the big fight against Congress and all the lobbyists was just, like, so relevant and so interesting, too. Aarati: 43:12 It's so relevant. Yeah. Arpita: 43:14 And this idea of just, like, you can't police what I'm putting in my body. I was like, goddammit, like, we're, like, still having this conversation. Like we moved the needle at all. Yeah, exactly. Aarati: 43:24 Yeah, yeah, but I think like, that's part of the reason I, feel like science communication is so important because I'm like, you know, these scientists who work for the FDA or, work in, you know, universities and things like that. They dedicate their lives to making sure that things are safe and drugs are safe, food is safe, you know, and it's, it's really like, trust the experts, you know, like they've, they've made sure that these things are safe, and are actually efficient and actually protective, and good for you. So I think it's such important research and I'm so glad that you did his story so that we could kind of see Arpita: 44:05 Yeah. where we started and like how much work goes Yeah, Aarati: 44:08 into it. Arpita: 44:09 Like both how far we've come and also like how not far we've come. Aarati: 44:13 Yeah. Like how much there is yet to go. Arpita: 44:17 Yeah, Aarati: 44:18 Yeah. Arpita: 44:19 Literally. Aarati: 44:19 Yeah. Oh my gosh. Great story though. Arpita: 44:22 Thank you. Aarati: 44:25 Thanks for listening. If you have a suggestion for a story we should cover or thoughts you want to share about an episode, reach out to us at smartteapodcast. com. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at smartteapodcast and listen to us on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a rating or comment. It really helps us grow. Episodes are released every other Wednesday. See you next time.