Book: The Poison Squad

Deborah Blum's newest book "The Poison Squad, One Chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century" provides an interesting and often frightening look at the early days of modern science in America. It wasn't until data could be collected in a disciplined manner that there was any hope of fighting widespread illnesses resulting from the rapid industrialization of the food supply.

However, and you'll definitely sympathize here, even with good data well presented, Dr. Harvey Wiley faced a herculean task. The forces of manufacturers, retailers and governmental bureaucracy quickly combined to counter his efforts, suppress his reports and obfuscate his findings to the public. After all just a little formaldehyde in a child's milk isn't going to kill them, right?

Highly recommended. Here is a link to amazon.