Time for a quick reminder about the Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_sulfanilamide
Who's buying up kaopectate factories?
welcome to the Age of Diarrhea
November 7, 2024 at 1:40 PM
Time for a quick reminder about the Elixir Sulfanilamide tragedy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_sulfanilamide
Look at the story of Sulfanilamide Elixer. That resulted in the FDA act of 1938.
Over the years, after Ronnie got elected, people have been removing the teeth of fed regs and cutting agency staff.
I have LOTs of horror stories about the past and books that were published about these abuses.
Over the years, after Ronnie got elected, people have been removing the teeth of fed regs and cutting agency staff.
I have LOTs of horror stories about the past and books that were published about these abuses.
June 13, 2026 at 8:35 PM
Look at the story of Sulfanilamide Elixer. That resulted in the FDA act of 1938.
Over the years, after Ronnie got elected, people have been removing the teeth of fed regs and cutting agency staff.
I have LOTs of horror stories about the past and books that were published about these abuses.
Over the years, after Ronnie got elected, people have been removing the teeth of fed regs and cutting agency staff.
I have LOTs of horror stories about the past and books that were published about these abuses.
Elixir Sulfanilamide should be taught in school.
October 12, 2024 at 3:02 PM
Elixir Sulfanilamide should be taught in school.
Real Cocaine in Coca Cola has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Leaded paint has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Baby formula made with titanium white pigment and swamp water has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Ethyl sulfanilamide has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Leaded paint has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Baby formula made with titanium white pigment and swamp water has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Ethyl sulfanilamide has to win in the marketplace of ideas
MAHA Action's Tony Lyons on peptides: "whether anything is is safe or not safe, good or bad -- my feeling is that it it has to win in the marketplace of ideas."
September 17, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Real Cocaine in Coca Cola has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Leaded paint has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Baby formula made with titanium white pigment and swamp water has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Ethyl sulfanilamide has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Leaded paint has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Baby formula made with titanium white pigment and swamp water has to win in the marketplace of ideas
Ethyl sulfanilamide has to win in the marketplace of ideas
www.fda.gov/about-fda/hi...
Yeah the gov't got really upset about adulterants in foods and drugs after hundreds of people died due to their medications being purposefully dissolved Sulfanilamide in diethylene glycol.
(Reposted to correct that the adulteration was diethylene glycol)
Yeah the gov't got really upset about adulterants in foods and drugs after hundreds of people died due to their medications being purposefully dissolved Sulfanilamide in diethylene glycol.
(Reposted to correct that the adulteration was diethylene glycol)
Elixir Sulfanilamide Tragedy
A detailed look at the Elixir Sulfanilamide crisis of 1937, originally published in the FDA Consumer magazine in 1981.
www.fda.gov
June 23, 2024 at 4:26 PM
www.fda.gov/about-fda/hi...
Yeah the gov't got really upset about adulterants in foods and drugs after hundreds of people died due to their medications being purposefully dissolved Sulfanilamide in diethylene glycol.
(Reposted to correct that the adulteration was diethylene glycol)
Yeah the gov't got really upset about adulterants in foods and drugs after hundreds of people died due to their medications being purposefully dissolved Sulfanilamide in diethylene glycol.
(Reposted to correct that the adulteration was diethylene glycol)
88 years after sulfanilamide…
October 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
88 years after sulfanilamide…
Yes: throughout the 20th c. pharma fails were followed by on point and (to a limit) effective new government oversight.
Cross contamination of diptheria serum treatment w. tetanus led to the first fed. drug regs in c. 1902. The elixir sulfanilamide tragedy in the 30s gave birth to the FDA...1/
Cross contamination of diptheria serum treatment w. tetanus led to the first fed. drug regs in c. 1902. The elixir sulfanilamide tragedy in the 30s gave birth to the FDA...1/
May 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Yes: throughout the 20th c. pharma fails were followed by on point and (to a limit) effective new government oversight.
Cross contamination of diptheria serum treatment w. tetanus led to the first fed. drug regs in c. 1902. The elixir sulfanilamide tragedy in the 30s gave birth to the FDA...1/
Cross contamination of diptheria serum treatment w. tetanus led to the first fed. drug regs in c. 1902. The elixir sulfanilamide tragedy in the 30s gave birth to the FDA...1/
Sulfamethoxazole (the sulfa half of Bactrim) was one of the second generation sulfa antibiotics, though (1961). The ones I'm talking about were approved pre-penicillin in 1935-1940: prontosil, sulfanilamide, sulfapyridine, sulfacematide, and sulfamethizole
July 12, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Sulfamethoxazole (the sulfa half of Bactrim) was one of the second generation sulfa antibiotics, though (1961). The ones I'm talking about were approved pre-penicillin in 1935-1940: prontosil, sulfanilamide, sulfapyridine, sulfacematide, and sulfamethizole
I stumbled across this Wikipedia page the other day and yeah it’ll be a lot like this
Elixir sulfanilamide - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 16, 2024 at 3:02 PM
I stumbled across this Wikipedia page the other day and yeah it’ll be a lot like this
Feb 24, 1941 TIME Last week it looked as though the problem of sulfa poisoning was solved. Dr. Perrin Long of Johns Hopkins reported a new, innocuous relative of sulfanilamide: sulfadiazine. A compound of sulfanilamide and part of vitamin B.
time.com/archive/6780...
time.com/archive/6780...
time.com
February 24, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Feb 24, 1941 TIME Last week it looked as though the problem of sulfa poisoning was solved. Dr. Perrin Long of Johns Hopkins reported a new, innocuous relative of sulfanilamide: sulfadiazine. A compound of sulfanilamide and part of vitamin B.
time.com/archive/6780...
time.com/archive/6780...
As has been discussed previously in your mentions, & in the threads you have been replying to, the FDA is the agency that enforces the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, passed after several adulterant issues in the industrialization of the US, in particular: www.fda.gov/about-fda/hi...
Elixir Sulfanilamide Tragedy
A detailed look at the Elixir Sulfanilamide crisis of 1937, originally published in the FDA Consumer magazine in 1981.
www.fda.gov
June 23, 2024 at 4:44 PM
As has been discussed previously in your mentions, & in the threads you have been replying to, the FDA is the agency that enforces the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, passed after several adulterant issues in the industrialization of the US, in particular: www.fda.gov/about-fda/hi...
So the gross out horror of Sinclair’s book led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 which was then administered by the FDA and after working out some kinks (e.g. ethyl sulfanilamide) we got a functioning evidence based food/drug regulatory agency that largely did a decent job. 12/?
July 23, 2026 at 4:37 PM
So the gross out horror of Sinclair’s book led to the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 which was then administered by the FDA and after working out some kinks (e.g. ethyl sulfanilamide) we got a functioning evidence based food/drug regulatory agency that largely did a decent job. 12/?
Prontosil was eclipsed almost immediately by the sulfas, sulfanilamide has an extremely small margin between "effective dose" and "toxic to humans dose" (but is still occasionally used topically for yeast infections with a bacterial vaginosis complication because it works on both halves),
July 12, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Prontosil was eclipsed almost immediately by the sulfas, sulfanilamide has an extremely small margin between "effective dose" and "toxic to humans dose" (but is still occasionally used topically for yeast infections with a bacterial vaginosis complication because it works on both halves),
Founding of the US FDA was 1862(?). The current name came in 1930s after an untested Sulfanilamide killed some patients in a hospital. Knew someone born in 1922 who had a UTI until a Sulfa drug cured it about 1935.
July 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Founding of the US FDA was 1862(?). The current name came in 1930s after an untested Sulfanilamide killed some patients in a hospital. Knew someone born in 1922 who had a UTI until a Sulfa drug cured it about 1935.
It will get POINTEDLY political when the incoming Trump FDA does something truly feckless and I can trot out a brief recap of the Elixir Sulfanilamide poisonings
January 20, 2025 at 2:52 PM
It will get POINTEDLY political when the incoming Trump FDA does something truly feckless and I can trot out a brief recap of the Elixir Sulfanilamide poisonings
Gr8 thread.
Deregulating our food supply will cast us back into a world in which your sandwich or your cough medicine could kill you.
(Blum focuses on food safety. My upcoming book doesn't center on this theme, but it includes the Elixir Sulfanilamide story, wh. in this context is terrifying.)
Deregulating our food supply will cast us back into a world in which your sandwich or your cough medicine could kill you.
(Blum focuses on food safety. My upcoming book doesn't center on this theme, but it includes the Elixir Sulfanilamide story, wh. in this context is terrifying.)
As we start the new year, I would like to remind everyone that it is now almost 120 years since the US decided consumer protection - by which I mean regulation - mattered. Given the upcoming presidential inauguration, let's talk about how that happened - and why it's so important. (A thread)
January 6, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Gr8 thread.
Deregulating our food supply will cast us back into a world in which your sandwich or your cough medicine could kill you.
(Blum focuses on food safety. My upcoming book doesn't center on this theme, but it includes the Elixir Sulfanilamide story, wh. in this context is terrifying.)
Deregulating our food supply will cast us back into a world in which your sandwich or your cough medicine could kill you.
(Blum focuses on food safety. My upcoming book doesn't center on this theme, but it includes the Elixir Sulfanilamide story, wh. in this context is terrifying.)
People need to look at what happened in the first place to make these agencies necessary. FDA is a good one:
December 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
People need to look at what happened in the first place to make these agencies necessary. FDA is a good one:
Dude who is super excited we finally get Kinder Eggs and Sulfanilamide back on the market.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_...
Elixir sulfanilamide - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
April 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Dude who is super excited we finally get Kinder Eggs and Sulfanilamide back on the market.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir_...
We can give people Elixir Sulfanilamide!
April 9, 2025 at 3:01 PM
We can give people Elixir Sulfanilamide!
This actually was the case for the first 30-ish years of FDA’s existence. After the sulfanilamide tragedy led to its formation, safety was the bar for authorization. We changed because proving both is much better.
January 26, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This actually was the case for the first 30-ish years of FDA’s existence. After the sulfanilamide tragedy led to its formation, safety was the bar for authorization. We changed because proving both is much better.
Also, reading about "Radithor" but at least one picture looks straight out of a horror flick.
And another, "Sulfanilamide Elixir"
And another, "Sulfanilamide Elixir"
July 26, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Also, reading about "Radithor" but at least one picture looks straight out of a horror flick.
And another, "Sulfanilamide Elixir"
And another, "Sulfanilamide Elixir"
The law, which amended the 1938 law which Kelsey’s work had brought into existence following the sulfanilamide deaths, required that doctors get informed consent from their patients before giving them trial drugs,
July 24, 2026 at 7:14 PM
The law, which amended the 1938 law which Kelsey’s work had brought into existence following the sulfanilamide deaths, required that doctors get informed consent from their patients before giving them trial drugs,
Somewhere in that timeframe was "processed cheese".
There was also that "Sulfanilamide Elixir" fiasco.
There was also that "Sulfanilamide Elixir" fiasco.
June 28, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Somewhere in that timeframe was "processed cheese".
There was also that "Sulfanilamide Elixir" fiasco.
There was also that "Sulfanilamide Elixir" fiasco.