Study Set Content:
Was a research assistant in Geiling’s lab at the University of Chicago during the sulfanilamide investigations and was responsible for conducting the animal toxicity testing with sulfanilamide.
Frances Oldham Kelsey
She started working at the FDA in 1960 where she was tasked with reviewing new drug applications for U.S. approval. Among her frst assignments was a new drug ()evadon). Kelsey held up the application and asked Merrell for more information regarding its safety. By 1961 it became clear that thalidomide posed a serious safety risk.
thalidomide
Sought a way to capture nitrogen in the air for use in largescale fertilizer production. His success, with further contributions from Carl Bosch, at nitrogen fxation (the HaberBosch process), garnered him the Nobel Prize in 1918.
Fritz Haber
process was instrumental in the manufacture of nitrogen-based explosives for the German Army during World War I.
Haber-Bosch
Administered by Harvey W. Wiley. These experiments involved asking healthy volunteers to consume measured amounts of preservatives routinely added to food items to determine whether they were safe for human consumption
“Poison Squad” experiments
The experiments were carried out in a controlled setting with meals prepared by a designated cook and chemist (). Although cringeworthy by today’s ethical standards, some of the chemicals fed to these young men were borax, benzoic acids, and formaldehyde.
William R. Carter
A nonsteroidal anti-infammatory drug used to treat pain and reduce fever, but highly toxic.
Acetanilide
The Pure Food and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act were passed on the very same day in 1906 by the then president Theodore Roosevelt. The former law became known as the
Wiley Bill
was a concoction which contained between 70% and 80% alcohol by weight. The U.S. Treasury Department required changes to the ingredients of Jamaica Ginger to discourage its abuse. The minimum requirement of ginger solids per cubic centimeter of alcohol resulted in a bitter concoction that was not palatable. Two bootleggers (Harry Gross and his brother-in-law Max Reisman) developed an alternative recipe that could pass the inspection and taste well enough to sell by adding tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate (TOCP) to the mixture.
Jamaica Ginger
is an illness characterized by strange paralysis of the legs, arms, and wrists with little to no recovery in large numbers of people throughout the Midwest, which was traced back to the Jamaica Ginger elixir. But since the typical ingredients (as listed in the U.S. Pharmacopeia) were not known to cause disease, they immediately suspected a contaminant was responsible. The matter was taken up by the Public Health Service’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), and it was there that the adulteration with TOCP was discovered.
Ginger Jake Paralysis
The preparation of sulfanilamide with diethylene glycol (as it was more soluble in this solvent compared to ethanol), with a sweet syrup for palatability, was labeled an “elixir.” Many patients, most of whom were children, died of acute kidney failure resulting from metabolism of the glycol to oxalic acid and glycolic acid. The drug and its metabolites crystallized in the kidney tubules, leading to renal failure. This tragedy led to the passage of the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act, also known as the Copeland Bill, which contained provisions for both misbranding and adulteration
Sulfanilamide elixir poisonings
Now used in the manufacture of pesticides and plastics, was employed extensively by the Germans during World War I and accounted for nearly 85% of all gas-related fatalities during that war
Phosgene
Was the frst nerve agent to be synthesized in 1937 by the IG Farben scientist () during his research to discover new organophosphate insecticides. The human toxicity of () was realized by accident during its development in 1935. () causes acetylcholinesterase inhibition in the peripheral and central nervous systems. The symptoms that result include trembling, convulsions, and respiratory paralysis.
Tabun, Gerhard Schrader,
China
Shen Nong
India:
Sushruta
Egypt:
Cleopatra, Pontus, Mithridates, and Theriacas
Greece:
Nicander of Colophon and Socrates
Rome:
Dioscorides, Galen, Locusta, and Sulla
During the middle ages they use poisoning as an assassination method, but also to establish scientific foundation. They used ()as the primary ingredient for poisoning; because it is odorless, tastless, and colorless.
Arsenic
Golden era of medieval toxicology
Roman era
