In the 1920s, before the era of consumer protection, a poison entered the medicine supply and killed more than 100 people before the pubic health disaster could be stopped.
# Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff Summary
Josh and Chuck dive into one of America's worst public health disasters: the 1937 elixir sulfanilamide tragedy. They explore how a Tennessee pharmaceutical company created a liquid antibiotic solution using diethylene glycol—a deadly poison similar to antifreeze—that was never tested before hitting shelves and ultimately killed over a hundred people, including men, women, and children who suffered agonizing deaths within days or weeks of taking it. The episode covers how the FDA managed to track down and recover nearly all 240 gallons of the contaminated medicine using a technical loophole, and how this disaster sparked crucial new regulations that saved thousands of lives and transformed drug safety oversight in America forever.
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