Bureau of Chemistry

B. C. Hesse, Coal-Tar Colors Used in Food Products, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin No. 147, Feb. 10, 1912. Results of the Hesse study made at the... 

Bureau of Chemistry established as part of the US Department of Agriculture. 

The Bureau of Chemistry is re-organised with regulatory functions now residing in the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. 

Bureau of Chemistry, California State Department of Agriculture, Sacramento, Calif. 

Each insecticide, fungicide, rodenticide, herbicide, or other pest control product must be registered with the State Bureau of Chemistry as an economic poison before being offered for sale in California. Registration may be refused, after hearing, for a product that is of little or no value for the purpose intended, or that is detrimental to vegetation (except weeds), to domestic animals, or to the public health and safety, when properly used. 

United States has a total value of about 15,000,000. In 1948, 35,000,000 pounds were produced of one insecticide alone—DDT (9). There are about 25,000 plant diseases in the United States, including 10,000 of economic importance, and these cost the nation about 4,000,000,000 a year. The annual wholesale value of all agricultural chemicals in the United States is about 185,000,000. The Bureau of Chemistry of the State Department of Agriculture in California reported during the fiscal year 1946-47 the registration of 7717 economic poisons. 

Bureau of Chemistry renamed the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. 

These included Johns Hopkins pharmacologist John J. Abel (by letter only, as he could not attend), Rockefeller Institute biochemist P. A. Levene, Chief of the U.S.D.A. Bureau of Chemistry Carl Alsberg, Wisconsin pharmacologist Arthur Loevenhart (engaged at the time in chemical warfare work), Acting Director of the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research E. R. Weidlein, and two industry representatives, Frank Eldred of Eli Lilly and Company and D. W. Jayne of the Barrett Company. The addresses were published in the December 1918 issue of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, and were also reprinted and circulated to numerous individuals whose views were solicited (21). 

Kohnstamm encountered the kinds of delays that often plague new systems and several times had to push back the initial shipping date. What it found most trying, perhaps because it was beyond its control, were the extensive delays in receiving certificates from the Board. The Board s procedure was cumbersome and slow. Kohnstamm sent certificates and samples to the Board in Washington where they were checked for form and completeness. These went next to the Bureau of Chemistry s New York laboratory where a single chemist, in addition to other duties, repeated all the tests the firm had done on the dye to see if it indeed matched the results and quality claimed. The chemist then sent his report to Hesse. If Hesse approved it, he informed the Board, who only then issued a certificate and assigned a lot number (52, 53). In exasperation, the company advertised in May that it would ship all orders on hand on June 1 "unless the US laboratory fails to check up our certifications. . . promptly, which has been the case up to now, but we have every reason to believe they will do more expeditious work on them in the future" (54). 

With Dunlap casting the deciding vote, the Board ruled in November that, under the law, other dyes could not and should not be forbidden unless the Bureau of Chemistry (i.e. Hesse) could present evidence that the dyes in question were harmful to human health. Considering the number of dyes on the market, this was tantamount to rejecting mandatory certification. Still, the decision reached was inescapable to one concerned, as McCabe was, with the text of the law as enacted. The statute only expressly prohibited poisonous color in confectionary, and under the general adulteration clause, prohibited any added ingredient which would render a food harmful to health. This was as far as McCabe would go. The question of moral propriety was simply not relevant. It was the duty of the executive branch to enforce the law ns enacted, and not to legislate (59) ... 

In January 1911, Wiley sent Hesse s manuscript on to Secretary Wilson with a recommendation that it be published. It appeared the following year as Bureau of Chemistry Bulletin //147, "Coal Tar Colors Used in Food Products." Hesse s report remained the standard work on the subject for many years it was heavily cited by a British Parliamentary committee as late as 1954 (70). 

Bureau of Chemistry, Record Group 97, National Archives. Washington D.C. All cited correspondence and other unpublished material is from this archive. 

Regulatory functions of the Bureau of Chemistry become the Food, Drug, and Insecticide... 

The United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) originated in June 1906, when President Roosevelt signed the Food and Drugs Act, which was to be implemented by the Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Bureau, the oldest U.S. consumer... 

When Congress created the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by statute in 1862, the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office, and its chemical laboratory, were transferred to form the nucleus of the new department. A Chemical Division was immediately formed within USDA. This became the Division of Chemistry in 1890, the Bureau of Chemistry in 1901, the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration in 1927 and the FDA in 1930. ... 

Dr. Lyman E Kebler becomes director of the drug laboratory in the Bureau of Chemistry, a government agency that evaluates the safety and purity of drug products. 

Department of Agriculture establishes the Bureau of Chemistry, the organizational forerunner of the Food and Drug Administration. 

United States Bureau of Chemistry expands studies of effects of chemical preservatives. 

To determine the safety of additives and preservatives in foods and medicines, the United States government established a poison squad, a group of young men who volunteered to eat foods treated with chemicals such as borax, formaldehyde, and benzoic acid. The poison squad was established by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley (1844-1930), head of the United States Bureau of Chemistry, the precursor to the FDA. 

Department of General Services, Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, Bureau of Chemistry, Commonwealth of Virginia, Richmond, VA 23219... 

The DCLS QA Program evolved as a result of participation and input from all levels of personnel from the outset. The QA program in the Bureau of Chemistry was the first to be developed at DCLS, and serves as the prototype for QA programs in the other Bureaus, although each Bureau is expected to address its own unique functions in the preparation of a QA plan. 

Commonwealth of Virginia Quality Assurance Plan for Bureau of Chemistry, July 1986. 

In such a manner did Claude S. Hudson embark upon his long career in the government service of the United States. This embraced ten years in the Bureau of Chemistry, five years at the National Bureau of Standards, and twenty-two years with the National Institutes of Health of the United States Public Health Service, from which he retired on January 31, 1951. The continuity of this long service was interrupted in 1911-1912, when Hudson served at Princeton University in place of Professor G. A. Hulett, then on leave of absence, and again, during a five-year period from 1919-1924, when he served as a private consultant in Trenton, New Jersey, and in the Hawaiian Islands. It was during the Princeton sojourn that Julian K. Dale met Dr. Hudson and began a Ph. D. disserta-... 

In 1890 the division under went another rather insignificant name change to the Division of Chemistry and, in 1901 was renamed the Bureau of Chemistry. The Bureau of Chemistry subsequently became the Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration in 1927 and, finally, officially, the Food and Drug Administration in 1930. 

As the use of patented medicines grew, so did the concern that products could easily be adulterated and misbranded. In 1862, President Lincoln addressed this concern by appointing Charles M. Wetherill, M.D., to serve in the newly created Department of Agriculture. With Dr. WetherilTs appointment, the Bureau of Chemistry, the predecessor of the FDA, was created within the Department of Agriculture. The Bureau of Chemistry, beginning in 1867, conducted studies to investigate the adulteration of food products. 

It was not until 1883, however, with the appointment of Dr. Wetherill as chief chemist, that these investigations were greatly expanded. Under Dr. WetherilTs leadership, the Bureau of Chemistry completed a widely publicized study analyzing the effects of food additives. However, it was ultimately a novel, rather than scientific evidence, that galvanized public attention. In 1906, Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a candid depiction of the filthy conditions in the U.S. meat-packing industry. ... 

These events collectively led to the passage of the 1906 Federal Food and Drug Act. This act, administered by the Bureau of Chemistry, stated that drugs could not be sold xmless they met the specifications of strength, quality, and purity defined by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary. This marked the beginning of the modem era of the FDA. In 1930, the name of the federal agency was shortened to its present name. The agency has been under several different administrations since then and is currently under the Department of Health and Human Services. ... 

For the 1906 act, the Bureau of Chemistry had been proactively investigating the adulteration of food producfs. However, if was nof xmtil a window of opportunify was opened, with the publication of The Jungle, that the public became enraged with such conditions and legislation could finally be passed prohibifing fhe interstate commerce of misbranded medications. 

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