Poison Squad Tested Food Preservatives

From 1902 to 1907, a group of 12 scientists regularly ate dangerous, previously untested food additives, including formaldehyde, and carefully documented how their bodies reacted. Led by American chemist Harvey Washington Wiley at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the volunteers became known as the "Poison Squad." Their experiments exposed the dangers of chemical preservatives in food and helped build public support for the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, which eventually led to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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