Factors That Led Up To The Pure Food And Drug Act Of 1906

The Pure Food and Drug act of 1906 stopped the sale, manufacturing, and transportation of poisonous and harmful foods and drugs. Historians agree that the Act came about from many people and organizations who had an interest in ratifying it. Many see Dr. Harvey Wiley, as the one who became the Chief Chemist at the Bureau of Chemistry and the sole creator of the law. There were other factors that lead to the pushing of the Pure Food and Drug Act, like the Women’s Christian Union, but Wiley and his attempts were the primary cause of the creation of these laws. In the eighteenth century, many Americans were concerned about the state of their food supply. In 1893, scientists from the Division of Chemistry founded clear metal that was in foods.

Pharmacists would create their own medicines, which wasn't monitored. In the Gilded Age things began to change and there was much more room for growth, especially within the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry was one of the top industries in the United States. The pharmaceutical association, which was founded in 1867, would create the fundamental laws for the standards necessary for pharmacies. The pharmaceutical industry kept on expanding and growing and eventually would help lower the price of drugs and would become a key part to the American economy. Eventually, the medicine industry became extremely competitive, causing many people to create drugs with fake formulas just to make a quick profit out of

It was when a product of food wasn't able to reach the federal or state standards. Not only was adulterated food bad for your body, but it was also an economic and commercial fraud. People were deceived by vegetable extracts and maple syrup. Congressman Marriott Brosius said, when three hundred delegates met in Washington to discuss national law that, “adulteration of food products resulted in the cheapening of the products of the farm and every farmer should engage in this crusade against a system of commercial piracy, which thus robs both producer and consumer, … the common enemy of all mankind, the scourge of all” (qtd. 9, 127). Brosius thought that food adulteration was a result from the decrease in value of the farm products. The first food adulteration was brought to the attention of the people during the Spanish American War of 1898. The press reported that there were large amounts of rotten meat that was being shipped to the American troops with the smell of boracic acid, causing many soldiers to get sick and disable the soldiers from fighting. For every one man who fought and died in battle, seven soldiers died from illness and diseases. The death rate from the soldiers with diseases was 110 thousand soldiers per year. Because of this, Harvey Wiley decided to begin his own investigation with the goal of “clearing the good name of American meats” (qtd. 1, 44). Wiley analyzed canned meats that were