Harvey W. Wiley and the Creation of the FDA
The creation of the Food and Drug Administration can greatly be credited to Harvey Wiley because of his knowledge, perseverance, and efforts to make the American public aware of what they were consuming every day. Wiley used his knowledge, as he was a chemist and physician, and made the study of food adulteration his bureau's principal business�; he was outraged by what he deemed essentially harmless fraud. He later discovered this was a threat to health and was determined to do something about it. Wiley even formed a group called the "Poison Squad"; they would test the effects of chemicals and adulterated food on themselves for further research involving food purity.� The efforts of Harvey Wiley along with the publication of "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair and with the help of President Roosevelt, the Pure Food and Drug bill became law in 1906.
English: Logo of the U.S. Food and Drug Administra...
English: FDA poster warning against the use of the...
Harvey Washington WileyHarvey Wiley was a state chemist at Indiana and a professor at Purdue University, he left all this to go to Washington in 1883 and because the chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture�. He was determined to study the effects of adulteration and to make the food industry a much safer industry. He forged bonds between agricultural chemists, state food and drug officials, women's club members, the medical profession, journalists and members of Congress.� Wiley took the steps that no other man had taken in efforts to protect the American people by fighting for labels on food and the approving of food before it is shipped anywhere around the country.
There had been three National Pure Food and Drug Congresses between 1898 and 1900 and during all three, Wiley sought to work out agreements in a private sector that might help passage of the law. Millers, brewers,