Transferred from last string
re: #178 William Lewis
Frances Oldham Kelsey, a true hero.
Not too hard to guess what rang Kelsey’s alarm bell when thalidomide came along. Early in her career, in 1938, she was part of the team that investigated the mass poisonings that resulted from the introduction of Elixir sulfanilamide. The manufacturer, SE Massengill, had used ethylene glycol as a solvent in the product. Their chief chemist, Harold Watkins, did not know that ethylene glycol is poisonous, even though it had been on the market for several years and there was already a fair amount of medical literature on the risks. 107 people died, 108 if you count Watkins, who committed suicide. This case led directly to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that Kelsey was enforcing when she barred thalidomide.