Banned

by Frederick Rowe Davis

  40. Ibid., 22.

  41. Ibid., 26–27.

  42. A. A. Nelson et al., “Histopathological Changes Following Administration of DDT to Several Species of Animals,” P.H.R. 59 (31) (1944): 1009–1020.

  43. G. Woodard, A. A. Nelson, and H. O. Calvery, “Acute and Subacute Toxicity of DDT (2,2,-bis (p-Chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-Trichloroethane) to Laboratory Animals,” J.P.E.T. 82 (1944): 153.

  44. Ibid., 156.

  45. Ibid., 157–158.

  46. J. H. Draize, A. A. Nelson, and H. O. Calvery, “The Percutaneous Absorption of DDT (2,2-bis (p-Chlorophenyl) 1,1,1-Trichloroethane) in Laboratory Animals,” J.P.E.T. 82 (1944): 161.

  47. Ibid., 166.

  48. R. J. Bing, B. McNamara, and F. H. Hopkins, “Studies on the Pharmacology of DDT (2,2 bis-Parachlorophenyl-1,1,1,Trichloroethane): The Chronic Toxicity of DDT in the Dog,” Bulletin of Johns Hopkins Hospital 78 (1945): 310.

  49. Edwin P. Laug, “A Biological Assay Method for Determining 2, 2 bis (p-Chlorophenyl)-1,1,1 Trichloroethane (DDT),” J.P.E.T. 86 (1946): 324.

  50. Vos et al., “Retired FDA Pharmacologists,” 48–49.

  51. E. P. Laug and O. G. Fitzhugh, “2,2-bis (p-Chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-Trichloroethane (DDT) in the Tissues of the Rat Following Oral Ingestion for Periods of Six Months to Two Years,” J.P.E.T. 87 (1946): 23.

  52. See H. O. Calvery, E. P. Laug, and H. J. Morris, “The Chronic Effects on Dogs of Feeding Diets Containing Lead Acetate, Lead Arsenate, and Arsenic Trioxide in Varying Concentrations,” J.P.E.T. 64 (4) (1938): 364–387, and E. P. Laug, and H. P. Morris, “The Effect of Lead on Rats Fed Diets Containing Lead Arsenate and Lead Acetate,” J.P.E.T. 64 (4) (1938): 388–410.

  53. H. S. Telford and J. E. Guthrie, “Transmission of the Toxicity of DDT through the Milk of White Rats and Goats,” Science 102 (2660) (1945): 647.

  54. See Nancy Langston, Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

  55. Clarence Cottam and Elmer Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Circular 11 (1946): 11.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Don R. Coburn and Ray Treichler, “Experiments on Toxicity of DDT to Wildlife,” J.W.M. 10 (3) (1946): 208–210.

  58. Cottam and Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” 12.

  59. Eugene W. Surber, “Effects of DDT on Fish,” J.W.M. 10 (3) (1946): 187.

  60. Ibid., 188.

  61. Cottam and Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” 1.

  62. Ibid. Emphasis added.

  63. Ibid.

  64. Ibid., 4.

  65. Robert E. Stewart et al., “Effects of DDT on Birds at the Patuxent Research Refuge,” J.W.M. 10 (3) (1946): 201, and Cottam and Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” 5.

  66. R. T. Mitchell, “Effects of DDT Spray on Eggs and Nestlings of Birds,” J.W.M. 10 (3) (1946): 194, and Cottam and Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” 5.

  67. Cottam and Higgins, “DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife,” 6, and Surber, “Effects of DDT on Fish,” 184.

  68. Clarence M. Tarzwell, “Effects of DDT Mosquito Larviciding on Wildlife. Part 1, The Effects on Surface Organisms of the Routine Hand Application of DDT Larvicides for Mosquito Control,” P.H.R. 62 (15) (1947): 525.

  69. Ibid., 526.

  70. Ibid.

  71. Ibid., 528.

  72. See Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Worster and Alfred Crosby (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), especially 291–315.

  73. Tarzwell, “Effects of DDT Mosquito Larviciding on Wildlife,” 530.

  74. Ibid., 530–531.

  75. Ibid., 545–546.

  76. Ibid., 554.

  77. Arnold B. Erickson, “Effects of DDT Mosquito Larviciding on Wildlife. Part 2, Effects of Routine Airplane Larviciding on Bird and Mammal Populations,” P.H.R. 62 (1947): 1257.

  78. Ibid., 1259.

  79. Ibid., 1261.

  80. P. A. Neal, W. F. Von Oettingen, and W. W. Smith, “Toxicity and Potential Dangers of Aerosols, Mists, and Dusting Powders Containing DDT,” P.H.R. Supplement 177 (1944): 10.

  81. Ibid., 12.

  82. G. R. Cameron, “Risks to Man and Animals from the Use of 2,2-bis (p-Chlorophenyl), 1,1,1,-Trichlorethane (DDT): With a Note on the Toxicology of Gamma-Benzene Hexachloride (666, Gammexane),” British Medical Bulletin 3 (1945): 234.

  83. R. A. M. Case, “Toxic Effects of 2,2-bis (p-Chlorphenyl) 1,1,1-Trichlorethane (D.D.T.) in Man,” British Medical Journal 2 (1945): 843.

  84. Ibid.

  85. F. M. G. Stammers and F. G. S. Whitfield, “The Toxicity of DDT to Man and Animals: A Report on the Work Carried Out at the Royal Naval School of Tropical Hygiene, Colombo, and a Review of the World Literature to January 1947,” Bulletin of Entomological Research 38 (1) (1947): 580.

  86. See P. A. Neal, T. R. Sweeney, S. S. Spicer, and W. F. von Oettingen, “The Excretion of DDT (2,2-Bis-(P-Chlorophenyl)-1,1,1-Trichloroethane) in Man, Together with Clinical Observations,” P.H.R. 61: 403–409, and E.F. Stohlman and M. I. Smith, 1945, “The Isolation of Di(P-Chlorophenyl) Acetic Acid (DDA) from the Urine of Rabbits Poisoned with 2,2 Bis (P-Chlorophenyl) 1,1,1 Trichlorethane (DDT),” J.P.E.T. 84 (1946): 375–379.

  87. E. P. Laug, F. M. Kunze, and C. S. Prickett, “Occurrence of DDT in Human Fat and Milk,” A.M.A Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine 3 (3) (1951): 245–246.

  88. G. W. Pearce, A. W. Mattson, and W. J. Hayes, Jr., “Examination of Human Fat for the Presence of DDT,” Science 116 (1952): 256.

  89. Wayland J. Hayes, Jr., William F. Durham, and Cipriano Cueto, Jr., “The Effect of Known Repeated Oral Doses of Chlorophenothane (DDT) in Man,” J.A.M.A. 162 (9) (1956): 891.

  90. Ibid., 897.

  91. Ibid.

  92. See Robert L. Rudd and Richard E. Genelly, Pesticides: Their Use and Toxicity in Relation to Wildlife (Davis: California Department of Fish and Game, 1956); Dunlap, DDT; Dunlap, “Science as a Guide in Regulating Technology: The case of DDT in the United States,” Social Studies of Science 8 (3) (1978): 265–285, and Robert N. Proctor, Cancer Wars.

  93. Russell, “War on Insects,” 447.

  94. See Whorton, Before Silent Spring.

  Chapter 3. The University of Chicago Toxicity Laboratory

  1. See Daniel J. Kevles, The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978). For additional studies of contributions of the University of Chicago to the biological sciences, see several papers in Gregg Mitman, Jane Maienschein, and Adele E. Clarke, eds., “Crossing the Borderlands: Biology at Chicago,” Perspectives on Science: Historical, Philosophical, Social 1 (3) (1993).

  2. Biographical information on E. M. K. Geiling can be found in Philip C. Hoffmann and Alfred Heller, “E. M. K. Geiling (1891–1971),” in Remembering the University of Chicago: Teachers, Scientists, and Scholars, ed. Edward Shilts (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 147–56.

  3. Linda Bren, “Frances Oldham Kelsey: FDA Medical Reviewer Leaves Her Mark on History,” FDA Consumer Magazine (March–April 2001), http://web.archive.org/web/20061020043712/http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/201_kelsey.html. Accessed July 25, 2012.

  4. John O. Hutchens, “The Tox Lab,” Scientific Monthly 66 (1948): 107–108.

  5. For a complete history of the OSRD, the NDRC, and CMR, see Irvin Stewart, Organizing Scientific Research for War: The Administrative History of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (Boston: Little, Brown, 1948). For a deeper analysis of the evolution of postwar science, see Roger L. Geiger, Research and Relevant Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), especially 3–29. For a detailed study of the Chemical Warfare Service and the OSRD, see Russell, War and Nature.

  6. Oscar Bodansky, “Contributions of Medical Research in Chemical Warfare to Medicine,” Science 102 (2656) (1945):
518. See also W. R. Kirner, “The Toxicity and Vesicancy of Chemical Warfare Agents,” in Chemistry: A History of the Chemistry Components of the National Defense Research Committee, 1940–1946, ed. W. A. Noyes, Jr. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1948), 243–248.

  7. John Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 41 (2001): 2.

  8. Hutchens, “Tox Lab,” 108.

  9. Ibid.

  10. See Frederick Rowe Davis, “On the Professionalization of Toxicology,” Environmental History 13 (October 2008): 751–756.

  11. Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” 5.

  12. Literally translated as “bad air,” malaria had a long history in the warmer, tropical and subtropical regions of the world. See Paul F. Russell, Man’s Mastery of Malaria (London: Oxford University Press, 1955). For detailed analysis, see Leo Barney Slater, War and Disease: Biomedical Research on Malaria in the Twentieth Century, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

  13. William H. Taliaferro, “Malaria,” in Medicine and the War, ed. Talliaferro (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), 55–75.

  14. Ibid., 65.

  15. Russell, Man’s Mastery of Malaria, 108. See also Slater, War and Disease, pp. 59–108.

  16. Graham Chen, “The Nature of the Enzyme Systems Present in Trypanosoma equiperdum: Introductory Statement,” Grant Application, Department of Pharmacology, University of Chicago, n.d., 1–2.

  17. Nathaniel Comfort, “The Prisoner as Model Organism: Malaria Research at Stateville Penitentiary,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 40 (2009): 192.

  18. Chen, “Nature of the Enzyme Systems Present in Trypanosoma equiperdum,” 4.

  19. Ibid., 7–8.

  20. Ibid., 12–13.

  21. F. E. Kelsey et al., “Studies on Antimalarial Drugs: The Excretion of Atabrine in the Urine of the Human Subject,” J.P.E.T. 80 (1944b): 385.

  22. See also Frederick Rowe Davis, “Unraveling the Complexities of Joint Toxicity of Multiple Chemicals at the Tox Lab and the FDA,” Environmental History 13 (October 2008): 674–683.

  23. Cited in C. I. Bliss, “The Toxicity of Poisons Applied Jointly,” Annals of Applied Biology 26 (1939): 586.

  24. Bliss, “Toxicity of Poisons,” 585–587.

  25. Graham Chen and E. M. K. Geiling, “The Acute Joint Toxicity of Atabrine, Quinine, Hydroxyethylapocupreine, Pamaquine and Pentaquine,” J.P.E.T. 91 (1947): 138–139.

  26. Ibid., 138.

  27. Graham Chen and E. M. K. Geiling, “Trypanocidal Activity and Toxicity of Antimonials,” Journal of Infectious Disease 76 (1945): 150.

  28. Graham Chen and E. M. K. Geiling, “The Determination of Antitrypanosome Effect of Antimonials in Vitro,” Journal of Infectious Disease 77 (1945): 142.

  29. F. W. Schueler, G. Chen, and E. M. K. Geiling, “The Mechanism of Drug Resistance in Trypanosomes,” Journal of Infectious Disease 81 (1947): 17.

  30. Stanford Moore and W. R. Kirner, “The Physiological Mechanism of Action of Chemical Warfare Agents,” in Chemistry: A History of the Chemistry Components of the National Defense Research Committee, 1940–1946, ed. W. A. Noyes, Jr. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1948), 249–260.

  31. L. O. Jacobson, C. L. Spurr, E. S. G. Barron, T. Smith, C. Lushbaugh, and G. F. Dick, “Nitrogen Mustard Therapy: Studies on the Effect of Methylbis (Beta-chloroethyl) Amine Hydrochloride on Neoplastic Diseases and Allied Disorders of the Hemopoietic System,” J.A.M.A. 132 (5) (1946): 263–71, and C. L. Spurr, L. O. Jacobson, T. R. Smith, and E. S. G. Barron, “The Clinical Application of a Nitrogen Mustard Compound Methyl bis (Beta-Chloroethyl) Amine to the Treatment of Neoplastic Disorders of the Hemopoietic System,” Cancer Research 7 (1) (1947): 51–52.

  32. Hoffmann and Heller “E. M. K. Geiling,” 153.

  33. See Gretchen Krueger, “The Formation of the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the Development of a Medical Specialty, 1964–1973,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 47 (4) (Autumn 2004): 539. See also Krueger, Hope and Suffering: Children, Cancer, and the Paradox of Experimental Medicine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008).

  34. Hutchens, “Tox Lab,” 109–110.

  35. E. M. K. Geiling, “Pharmacology,” Annual Review of Physiology 10 (1948): 409–410.

  36. See Alice Kimball Smith, A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists’ Movement in America, 1945–47 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), 539–559 and Angela N. H. Creager, Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013).

  37. Eugene M. K. Geiling, “The Use of the Radioisotopes as an Experimental Tool,” Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 25 (1957): 57.

  38. E. M. K. Geiling, B. J. McIntosh, and A. Ganz, “Biosynthesis of Radioactive Drugs Using Carbon 14,” Science 108 (1948): 559.

  39. E. M. K. Geiling et al., “Biosynthesis of Radioactive Medicinally Important Drugs with Special Reference to Digitoxin,” Transactions of the Association of American Physicians 63 (1950): 94.

  40. Ibid., 95.

  41. John Doull, Kenneth P. DuBois, and E. M. K. Geiling, “The Biosynthesis of Radioactive Bufagin,” Archives of Internal Pharmacodynamics 86 (4) (1951): 463.

  42. George Okita, Robert B. Gordon, and E. M. K. Geiling, “Placental Transfer of Radioactive Digitoxin in Rats and Guinea Pigs,” Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 80 (1952): 538.

  43. G. T. Okita et al., “Studies on the Renal Excretion of Radioactive Digitoxin in Human Subjects with Cardiac Failure,” Circulation 7 (1953): 167.

  44. George T. Okita et al., “Blood Level Studies of C14-Digitoxin in Human Subjects with Cardiac Failure,” J.P.E.T. 113 (1955): 380.

  45. George T. Okita et al., “Metabolic Fate of Radioactive Digitoxin in Human Subjects,” J.P.E.T. 115 (1955): 378.

  46. John Doull, interview by author, October 27, 2000.

  47. Ibid. See also Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” 5.

  Chapter 4. The Toxicity of Organophosphate Chemicals

  1. See Russell, War and Nature.

  2. DuBois had also completed an M.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry at Purdue University and a B.S. in chemistry and pharmacy at South Dakota State University, where he participated in research on selenium poisoning as an undergraduate. For additional biographical information, see F. K. Kinoshita, “Kenneth Patrick DuBois (August 9, 1917—January 24, 1973),” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 25 (1973): 435–436, and John Doull, “Kenneth Patrick DuBois (August 9, 1917–January 24, 1973),” Toxicological Sciences 54 (2000): 1–2.

  3. See Russell, War and Nature.

  4. Hutchens, “Tox Lab,” 111.

  5. Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” 2–3.

  6. Kenneth P. DuBois and George H. Mangun, “Effect of Hexaethyl Tetra-phosphate on Choline Esterase in Vitro and in Vivo,” Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine 64 (1947): 139.

  7. Doull received his B.S. in chemistry at Montana State College in 1944, then spent two years in the navy as a radar and electronics specialist on the battleship New Jersey in the South Pacific. In 1946, he began a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Chicago, on the advice of one of his professors at Montana State who arranged an interview with DuBois’s colleague George Mangun (also a Montana graduate). It was Mangun who suggested that Doull switch to pharmacology to work with DuBois as his graduate advisor. See Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” 3.

  8. Kenneth P. DuBois et al., “Studies on the Toxicity and Mechanism of Action of P-Nitrophenyl Diethyl Thionophosphate (Parathion),” J.P.E.T. 95 (1949): 79–91.

  9. Cited in Kenneth P. DuBois, John Doull, and Julius M. Coon, “Studies on the Toxicity and Pharmacological Action of Octamethyl Pyrophosphoramide (OMPA; Pestox III),” J.P.E.T. 99 (1950): 376–393.

  10. Ibid.

  11. David Grob, William L. Garlick, and A. McGehee Harvey, “The Toxic Effects in Man of the Anticholine
sterase Insecticide Parathion (P-Nitrophenyl Diethyl Thionophosphate),” Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin 87 (1950): 107.

  12. Ibid., 127.

  13. P. Lesley Bidstrup, “Poisoning by Organic Phosphorous Insecticides,” British Medical Journal (1950): 548.

  14. Ibid., 550.

  15. Biographical material on Arnold J. Lehman is surprisingly limited given his long tenure at the FDA, but see Harry W. Hays, “Obituary: Arnold J. Lehman (September 2, 1900–July 10, 1979),” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 51 (1979): 549–551 and Anon., “About the Authors: Arnold J. Lehman, M.D.,” Food Drug Cosmetic Law Journal 8 (7) (1953): 403.

  16. Arnold J. Lehman, “The Toxicology of the Newer Agricultural Chemicals,” Quarterly Bulletin of the Association of Food and Drug Officials 12 (3) (1948): 83–85.

  17. Ibid., 87.

  18. Ibid., 88.

  19. Ibid.

  20. Ibid., 68.

  21. Ibid., 70.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry Committee on Pesticides, American Medical Society, “Pharmacology and Toxicology of Certain Organic Phosphorous Insecticides,” J.A.M.A. 144 (2) (1950): 104–108.

  24. Ibid., 107–108.

  25. Ibid., 108.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid.

  28. See Bosso, Pesticides and Politics, 66.

  29. Kenneth P. DuBois, “Food Contamination from the New Insecticides,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 26 (1950): 326.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid., 328.

  32. Doull, “Toxicology Comes of Age,” 3–4.

  33. Kenneth P. DuBois and Julius M. Coon, “Toxicology of Organic Phosphorus-Containing Insecticides to Mammals,” A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine 6 (1952): 11–12.

  34. Ibid., 12.

  35. Lloyd W. Hazleton and Emily G. Holland, “Toxicity of Malathon: Summary of Mammalian Investigations,” A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Medicine 8 (1953): 401. Emphasis added.

  36. Ibid., 405.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Ibid.

  39. Robert E. Bagdon and Kenneth P. DuBois, “Pharmacologic Effects of Chlorthion, Malathion and Tetrapropyl Dithionopyrophosphate in Mammals,” Archives of Internal Pharmacodynamics 103 (2–3) (1955): 197.