United States synthetic organic dyes

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the agency that approves the use of colorants in food. All color additives required to be listed by the FDA fall into two categories those that are subject to the FDA s certification process and those that are exempt from the certification process. Color additives subject to batch certification are synthetic organic dyes, lakes, or pigments. Color additives exempt from certification generally include those derived from plant or mineral sources. 

To understand the prewar economy in synthetic organic chemicals, consider a typical, if imaginary, journey of a synthetic dye and a synthetic pharmaceutical from Germany to the United States in 1914. On the eve of World War I, indanthrene blue GCD and Salvarsan represented the most advanced synthetic organic dye and pharmaceutical yet produced by the German industry. Americans had embraced both upon their introductions to the world markets, and the two products illustrate the complex global networks—technological, commercial, and... 

Over 1915 and 1916, Norton produced three significant reports that systematically laid out the scope of the crisis. His reports argued clearly and concisely that the United States ought to develop a domestic synthetic organic dyes industry. Norton pointed to the abundant raw materials in the United States and the demand from its textile industries, and he also noted that the vast majority of the dyes consumed in the United States never were or were no longer protected by patents—all conditions conducive to promoting a domestic industry. While the chemical community applauded the support of the Department of Commerce and Norton s investigations, they disputed some of Norton s analyses. 

In 1980, approximately 111,000 t of synthetic organic dyestuffs were produced in the United States alone. In addition, another 13,000 t were imported. The largest consumer of these dyes is the textile industry accounting for two-thirds of the market (246). Recent estimates indicate 12% of the synthetic textile dyes used yearly are lost to waste streams during dyestuff manufacturing and textile processing operations. Approximately 20% of these losses enter the environment through effluents from wastewater treatment plants (3). 

But those who wished to build an American synthetic organic chemicals industry more rigorously reviewed the history of U.S. dyes firms and their context, finding both concrete reasons for underdevelopment and grounds to hope that the United States could sustain such an industry going forward. Many blamed U.S. tariff policy, while others variously considered U.S. patent policy, the influence of the American textile industry, the state of academic chemistry and the chemical profession, and the supply of raw materials and necessary inorganic chemicals. 

In the ensuing years, Hesse carefully observed the dyes market in the United States, and, more than most, he stood in a position to analyze the prospects for an American synthetic organic chemicals industry once the war broke out. 

The United States rejected the Treaty of Versailles and, not having borne the brunt of war costs, had little need for reparations. That the United States therefore accepted synthetic dyes as a form of reparations from Germany signifies the degree to which the American government had committed to support the domestic synthetic organic chemicals industry. 

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