WEBVTT - Does the FDA Protect Americans? 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.360 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.439 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry over there. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.680 So this is stuff you should know the podcast. How 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:26.239 does doing fine? How are you great? Yeah? Yeah, that's good. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.400 I enjoyed learning about the f d A. Yeah, you 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:34.640 know we've podcasted on him before. Why doesn't the FDA 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.760 regulate herbal supplements? Right? Man, we did that long time ago. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.840 Remember that's where the herbal Elvis comes out. Oh yeah, 0:00:41.960 --> 0:00:46.400 was that the first appearance? I'm pretty sure. Hey, man, 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:50.360 give me some supplements. Your dad doctor, He just like 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:52.120 would go around the house. Yeah, when he was on 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:56.560 Herble Upper. Sure. Yeah man, how did you talk on 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:00.520 the herbal downers? He didn't. He just slept a lot, gotcha. 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:05.360 Um No, I'm just tease of course. So we have 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:07.920 talked about the FDA before, but yeah, this is um 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:12.280 this is a much more in depth. Look that's right 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:17.760 at the ft. Okay, let's set your Chris Walkin. No 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:20.640 was that Chris Walkin? No? Not really, I mean the 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.840 weird pauses, but I was more doing Shatner. Oh but 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:29.880 I didn't go up, which should have Sure pretty good though, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:35.080 huh yeah, pretty clear, Bill sat So, uh did you 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.959 know most of this stuff? Um? Well, I know that 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.240 the f d A is is has a history of 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.080 controversy of people saying, uh, you're not you don't act 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:48.680 fast enough. We need these drugs to help people. Or 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.440 then other people are like, stop acting so much exactly, 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.320 you're going too fast and rushing these things to market, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.440 right exactly. So it's it's a bit of a tough 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.640 thing to reconcile, you know. There. I acknowledge they're in 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.920 a tough spot. They really are. And um, I think 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.920 that's a good, good caveat or disclaimer to put it 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.359 in the front of this because it is a very 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:12.200 controversial agency. It's the first consumer protection agency in the 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:18.000 United States ever, it's the oldest one, and um it's 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.760 common liberal or what have you. But I think it 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:26.800 is a very um important agency to have. Oh I 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.400 don't think that makes you liberal. So some people may say, 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.440 so what they don't think we should regulate anything in 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.480 this country. Yeah, there's people who think that, like the 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.160 f d A is just completely in the way of business. 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:43.960 It's a a fetter right, that's a thing because unfettered, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.760 if you can be unfettered, you can be fettered. But 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.280 is there something that can fetter and would that be 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.080 a fetter? So it's a fetter to business to some 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:57.519 in some people's mind. Um yeah, I just think that 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:03.399 you when you were talking about something as um elemental 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.840 as food or drugs, thinks we put into our bodies 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.320 and the hopes that we will be have a greater 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.560 well being that you kind of do have to have 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.560 a big kid on the block looking out for all 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.400 the little kids. Well, I mean, I think when when 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:23.639 big bucks are involved, it's pretty clear that companies themselves 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.240 probably aren't gonna like pull back on their profits in 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.320 order to just be super safe, like it has been 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.400 proven throughout history that they'll generally want like air on 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:37.360 the side of making the money. You know, you're a comic, 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:43.400 is gonna be fun. So Okay, now that we got 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.680 that out of the way, Chuck, let's dig into the FDA, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.680 because if you want to see whether or not you 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.920 think the f d A is necessary, all you have 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.240 to do is go back to the days before the FDA, 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:55.760 which wasn't too terribly long ago. I mean, the FDA 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.480 really only finds its origins and uh nineteen o six 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.160 on paper, it goes a little bit back before that today, 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.760 I think the Abraham Lincoln administration. Yeah, who was a 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.800 pinko himself. Let's climb in the way back machine, shall we. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:15.840 Oh yeah, it's been a little man. It smells like 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.840 cat in here. I know. Well I took a little 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.160 ride with Laurent and the Wizard and uh, sorry about nothing. Man, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.240 how are they doing well? They're doing great, But um, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.520 I forgot to bring a little box. So yeah, there 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.360 was an accident. Um, so here we are in the 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.880 way back machine and we're going all the way back, 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.440 like you said, to the Times of Lincoln. And what 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.480 he did he kind of kicked kick the man. I 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.120 couldn't say that the other day in private the bucket. No, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.920 I want to say, get the ball rolling and kick 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.400 it off. And I said kick the ball, kick the 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:49.400 ball rolling. I said that the other day. It's like 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.440 twice that's okay. So he wanted to kick the ball rolling. 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:58.479 And so he appointed a chemist named Charles weather Roll 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:03.520 to analyze agricultural materials. Sniffed him on the case. Yeah, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.239 he sniffed them on the case. Not off, said hey, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.200 food and soil and fertilizer, maybe look into that. We 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.800 have the new Department of Agriculture. And then his successors, 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.040 Harvey Wiley and Peter Collier were the dudes who really 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.919 um kind of got things going in a in a 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:23.760 like a serious way for the FDA. Well, they saw 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:27.919 like a real um reason for an agency that was 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.919 in charge of guarding safeguarding the purity of food and 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.960 drugs at the American public was ingesting. They basically saw 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.080 what was going on. I was like, Hey, we might 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.240 need to step in here because prior to this, I mean, 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.880 we talked about it in UM are Bizarre Medical Treatments 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.120 episode I think where we were just talking about UM 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.839 like little kids being given morphine in like a prescription 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:53.760 that in no way, shape or form said there was 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.880 morphine and it just calm colicky babies, and it calmed 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.719 him by bringing him to the brink of death on 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.920 him morphine overdose. But you could buy it over the counter. 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:06.960 You shouldn't regulate that, that's business. So that's one and 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.560 that was the one that actually used morphine there. I'm 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.600 sure others that were out there that were um much 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.880 more lethal use knockoff morphine or something like that that 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.240 cousin Tony made in his basement. You could do it 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.680 bottle and if the person, if the person bought it 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.880 and they died, well, buyer beware, you know. Um. So 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.280 the guys like Um, Wiley and Collie or especially Wiley, though, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.960 we're really adamant about getting some sort of regulation and 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:40.600 specifically taking this agency that they've been handed um and 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.800 and building it into into a real powerhouse. Yeah. And 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.120 over the course of about twenty five years, they got 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.839 Congress to look over about a hundred bills for the 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:55.720 food and drug industry. I guess Congress said, no, no, no, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.000 we're pretty deep in the industry's pockets, so we can't 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.240 really do anything right now. We agree with you, totally 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.360 great idea, but I'm sorry, but I a car is 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.640 about to be invented and I want to own one, 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.360 and pretty bad. Well that'll change, though, my friend. In 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:16.760 nineteen six, UM when h reporter novelist Upton Sinclair wrote 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.960 The Jungle, which UM, like everyone sort of this very 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.640 famous book that uh exposed the practices of the meat 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:28.120 packing industry in Chicago in particular. But um, it was 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:30.080 a big deal and it caused a lot of people 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.240 to really freak out. It wasn't It was a novel, 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.760 which means it was fictitious, but it was based on 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.200 his and he was a journalist too. It was based 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.400 on his experiences I guess, working undercover in the Chicago 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:47.760 meat packing plants, and apparently I guess Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.000 set up an investigation, a committee to investigate. He claims 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:54.920 fan of Sinclair's at all, but I think he's sort 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.360 of Everyone was so repulsed he had to do something. Yeah, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.480 I mean, like it really got the America in public 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.280 because the stories are things like, um, they were using 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.280 disease cows for meat, and there were rats that were 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.840 calling around on the cows, and so they poisoned the rats, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.720 and then the dead poisoned rats with the poison, and 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.360 the diseased cow meat would all be put into a 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:21.000 grinder and there was your potted meat on the other side. Yeah, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.600 he was, Uh, I still won't eat potted meat. Yeah, well, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.080 I don't care what year it is. You take me 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.680 to the future in twenty two thousand, three hundred and twelve, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.600 and I'm not gonna eat potted meat. I wish the 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.840 way back machine could go to the future. Well, that's 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.800 the way forward machine. We have one of those well 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.200 nuls working on it. Okay, it'll be a while. Um. 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.760 So they had to do something because there were even 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.200 accusations of people being in meat um, which apparently was 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.760 not true and that was really fictitious. Right. But that 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:57.199 committee that investigated Sinclair's claims in the Jungle found that 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.800 pretty much everything else he said in that book was 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.120 through step for the guy being ground up with the 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.079 beef because he fell into a meat grinder. And they 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.920 were just like, again, the meat business is not able 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.160 to police itself and say maybe we shouldn't put disease 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.160 rats and meat. So the government was forced to step 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.160 in and in nineteen oh six, on June thirty, Congress 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:19.959 past the Food and Drugs Act a k a. The 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.400 Wiley Act, and that prohibited um trade of mislabeled and 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:29.120 contaminated food, bevies and medicines across state lines. So I 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.120 guess you can still sell it in Illinois, you know. Yeah, 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.200 That's the one thing I never get is the shipping thing, Like, well, 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.720 that's that's the only thing that they can enforce. Er. Well, yeah, 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.840 the the federal government is there's always been a struggle 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.920 between states in federal right, and so the kind of 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.560 the line has been drawn at the state borders where 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.760 it's like RoCE across the state border all of a sudden, 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.000 you're part of the United States rather than just the state, 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:57.439 and you want to leave it up to the state. 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.240 But over time the federal government has taken more and 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:04.600 more power from the states. With the Wily Act, though, Chuck, 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:06.480 I mean, it's named after Wiley, so it gives you 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.440 an idea of like the links that this guy went 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:12.760 too to try to establish some sort of standards for 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.000 purity and food. Right. One of the things he did 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.400 was set up what came to be called the Poison Squad. Yeah, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.520 that's a great name, isn't it. It really isn't It 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:23.960 was a sensational name, and at first he fought it, 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:27.040 and then he finally saw like he was worried that 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.640 with a name like the poison Squad, they had their 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.120 own little poison squad. An thom and Um the articles 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.280 written about the Poison Squad really sensational and like, can 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.000 you believe how crazy these guys are? Um and at 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.400 first wild he fought it because he he was like, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.800 this is a really serious scientific undertaking. And then finally 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.480 he saw the writing on the wall. It was like, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.800 you can get America behind this whole idea if you 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.080 just give him the poison Squad as they want the 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.840 poison Squad. And it's like I have added everybody they 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.720 haven't had them. They did. It's in this this article 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.800 for m like the FDA Zone Consumer magazine or whatever 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.120 from I think two thousand two, The Boys and Squad, 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.040 The Boys and Squad something like. It's something it's kind 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:15.040 of like that. It's like, um, it's like when they 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.680 take these bites, um, they won't feel any pain, but 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:22.600 when they wake up in the morning, they'll probably never 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.720 be the same. Just stuff like that. It's just kind 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.880 of like, um, you know how they used to make 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:31.200 jokey songs in the early interesting. So what the Poison 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:35.400 Squad was was a group of men volunteers we should 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.600 point out who signed up for this and repeatedly signed 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.720 up for this and signed away their right to sue 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:46.080 or anything. They were fully on board, um to eat 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.800 poison and to basically uh in a in a kitchen 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:52.680 there on h Washington, d C. In the basement of 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.240 the FDA's building. Yeah, they would have had a chef 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.040 that apparently made some great meals laced with all kinds 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.280 of poison for mal hide, borax, what was a really 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:07.360 harmful one. It was called copper sulfate, right, which is 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.800 now pesticide. Correct. Yeah, and they used it to make 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.400 camps appear bright green, and that that kind of gets 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.160 to the heart of the matter. Chuck, Like they these 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.600 guys weren't just eating poison just for fun. Oh no, 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.640 they were testing out stuff that was being used as 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.120 preservatives and food at the time. Exactly, additives and preservatives 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.120 and stuff like you said to make your peas greener. Right, 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.800 So people used to use formaldehyde to preserve meat, makes sense, 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.680 people used to use borax formaldehyde. Look how long that 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.680 human heads? But in that bucket? Exactly, let's put it 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:41.520 on beef. So did you touch that head or did 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.960 you just like you didn't poke it with the end 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.480 of a mom and know, his face bobbed up at me, 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:48.200 and I was just like, all right, there it is, 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:54.960 hello sir. So Uh, the poison Squad made great headway. 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.240 They really determined a lot of stuff that shouldn't be 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.000 used as preservatives like that copper sulfate that was used 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.040 to make peas green. Yeah, national heroes in a way. 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:10.760 Well yeah, they also proved um overall, that selling adulterated 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.080 food wasn't just a buyer beware kind of thing, that 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.880 it actually posed a real public health hazard. They got 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.400 super sick, they did, and they got publicized. These guys 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.000 are getting sick on purpose from the same stuff that 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.439 you're feeding your kids, which is where they shut it 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.480 down eventually, right, and the public all of a sudden 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.240 it's like, well, we don't want this stuff in our peas. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:34.320 I don't care whether they're green or not. I'm not 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.400 eating this, And then public pressure led to finally Congress 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.480 enacting the Food and Drug Act. I wonder if I'm 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.160 When I was reading this, I was wondering if that 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:47.480 has something to do with the the um the thing 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.880 with peas, Like I don't think people generally like peas, 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:52.840 and I wonder if that has anything to do with 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.040 I like peas. But I wonder if that was like 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.560 a stigmata on the PA when this stuff came out 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:05.200 and have blood on its palms, blood on its p uh. 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.600 Maybe I don't know. I don't either surely it had 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.360 some effect that would guess, well, it's like it's probably 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.120 a lot like Um, how they spray produce in the 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.640 produce section, even though it increases its rotting time dramatically. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:18.959 Why did they do that to make it look pretty, 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.400 to make it look fresh. It's ridiculous, but it's probably 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.280 the same exact principle. I bet you're right. Here's some 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.440 poison to make your people. Right. So the f d 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:34.240 A UM when they formally evolved, Um, they evolved out 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.680 of some other agencies. Uh. They've been through a bunch 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:40.520 of name changes and reords through the years. Um. But 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:43.960 in nineteen oh six what they're they were under the 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.280 Department of Agricultures Bureau of Chemistry, and they were the 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.880 ones charged with enforcing that Food and Drugs Act. So 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.480 they split them up in ninete into two groups, the 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:58.240 Food and Drug Insecticide Administration they handled the regulations and 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.000 the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils handled the experiments. Before 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.000 it had been just the Bureau of Chemistry doing both. Yeah, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.320 so they split them up. Eventually, they dropped in nineteen 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:10.120 thirty the name and Secticide and it just became the 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.160 f D AY and From there, they were in under 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.240 the guys or under the purview of several agencies until 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.560 the late seventies and they finally landed where they are now, 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:24.560 which is the Health and Human Services yea, h h S, 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:31.960 green PS. So today the way they're organized loosely. They're 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.320 not organized loosely, but this is a script site is this? 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.000 They have a top layer of the Office of Commissioner 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.040 of Food and Drugs a report to the director of sorry, 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:47.680 the Secretary of HHS who used to be Tommy Thompson. Really, yeah, 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.000 under Bush. Oh that's right. Do you know who it 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.720 is now? I don't. There's probably none there. Obama hasn't 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.680 been able to get anybody confirmed, like either term. Uh. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.720 That first layer also has seven support supporting organizations that 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.560 support the commissioner, and they're mainly on They're not like 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.960 the rubber meets the road. They're the on the policy 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:13.120 side of things, basically litigation and stuff. Well, yeah, the 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:18.120 big stuff, the big overarching we are the f d A. Yeah, 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:22.320 and then below them are broken down the into components 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.240 that handle rubber meets the road stuff. Yeah. Those are 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.920 the five Deputy commissioners and um, they're they're like you 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.200 said they're the ones that really are heading up the 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:37.200 field offices. I think there's um four sorry two seven 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.280 field offices. And then they have their big home in 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.600 Silver Spring, Maryland, where they have about close to employees 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:48.320 and chuck. Um, let's do a quick quiz. You're ready, yes, okay, 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.280 the f you gotta wait, sorry that I know you're 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.320 very excited right now, is just hanging there. The FDA 0:16:55.520 --> 0:17:01.720 regulates true or false? UM, X ray machines. Um, I'm 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:06.880 gonna say true, that's right. They regulate radioactive or radioactivity 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:14.920 emitting machines like X rays. Uh. Pesticides, that's right. Yeah, 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.520 that's the U. S d A. From what I understand. Um, 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:24.359 illicit drugs like cocaine and crap cocaine. They don't regulate that. No, 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:28.760 that's true. They don't. Uh. Let's see what else. What 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:36.000 about donated blood? True, that's true. They regulate biologics doing 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.760 great man vaccines and blood. Yeah, thank you, tobacco. Um, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.760 they do regulate that, I believe. And then what about 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:49.040 poultry chicken? Yes, of course they do. No, because it's food. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.640 No U s d A. Again, although the FDA does 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.960 regulate apparently the dairy industry. Yeah, but not meeting poultry. No, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.480 talk about mind boggling. They do reulate um cosmetics, but 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.480 obviously because we did a podcast on it, they don't 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.919 regulate uh several supplements. Yeah, that was a good one, 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:10.919 if I remember correctly, We really like got to the 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:12.919 heart of the matter. Yeah, And there's a lot of 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:14.399 and I think you talked about it. Then there's a 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:18.040 lot of slippery language that can be used in body 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.800 products period, which always aggravates Emily to no end because 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.160 she has completely natural body products. But you can throw 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:28.960 names on packages these days, on foods too, that just 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:32.919 say like purer and natural and just these buzzwords that 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.719 mean nothing, and there's no regulation for when you can 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.280 use those words. And it's just it's they're trying to 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.040 sell people on something that's not true. It's truly sad. 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.320 Like light beer. I remember hearing years and years and 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.040 years ago that light beer only has to be light 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.919 and color to be called light beer. Really Yeah, But 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.400 now that I'm grown, I'm like, I'll bet like, who 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.399 regulates that, I'll bet you it doesn't even have to 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:56.600 be light in color and light and color compared to 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.240 what you can probably call something light beer if you 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.400 want to, Well, it's light in calories, right, buyer beware. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.040 But your point is it's not regulated, right, Probably not 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:07.960 a beer has to be under this many calories to 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:09.720 be called a light Yeah. I don't believe it is. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.400 And now that I think, I'd probably be the FTC 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:14.480 that would be in charge of that kind of thing. 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:19.280 But they the t F Yeah, man, the government should 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:21.920 just have a lot of lettered agencies. Yeah. One last 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.080 thing about the FDA though, there's a group of special 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.600 agents in the criminal unit that carried guns. Really FDA 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:32.560 agents that carried guns and will shoot you well for 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.080 doing what I've got a great example of it. Had 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.399 they caught whoever it was that poisoned the Chicago area 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:46.880 tile and all in, they probably would have shot that person. Yep. 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.639 Do you do you know about that? I do? Uh, 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.840 you want to talk about that now? Sure might as well. Huh. Yeah, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.679 I remember this, do too, man. Yeah. I was a 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.159 six year old whose eyes were just opening to the 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.400 ideas of w things and drugs and learning to fear 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:04.680 things that you bought at the store. Yeah. I didn't. 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:06.480 I didn't. I didn't know the specifics because I was 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.359 only eleven and I never really like researched further as 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.359 an adult. But twelve year old girl died in a 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.760 suburban Chicago after taking Thailand all laced with cyanide as. 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.520 It turns out, Um, she was dead by the next day, 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:24.840 I believe know a couple of hours, Oh, a couple 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.280 of she took it that morning then and then dim. 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:33.080 So Uh. That same day, a twenty seven year old 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:38.359 name Adam Janice suburban Chicago died and then his brother 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.440 and sister were consoling the family. They thought it was 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.240 a heart attack. Uh, we're consoling the family and just 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.280 sort of doing the post death family stuff. Very stressed, 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.440 got headaches, they took tail and all and they both died. Yeah. 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.600 I had no idea that connection. Three more people died 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.720 over the next couple of days, all from they found 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.439 out upon investigating, all of them had taken Thailand all 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:04.639 right before they died. So they started looking at right, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.760 they started looking into it, and um, it turned out 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:12.000 that there was poisoned thailand all in the Chicago area. 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.080 And everyone freaked out because at the time Thailand all 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.440 was like that was it. You had an over the 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.280 counter pain reliever. It was Thailand All, and they didn't 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.560 have tamper resistant bottles at the time. What they later 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:28.440 figured out is that somebody bought Thailand All, took it home, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.960 I guess, laced it with cyanide, and then brought it 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.080 back and made it look like it had been unopened, 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:38.040 and people bought them and died from They still don't 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:39.520 know who did it. They made it look like it 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.880 was unopened by just closing the lid again. Because there again, 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:47.879 no tamper resistant packaging until right this changed everything. So UM, 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.119 the company that makes tail and All under Johnson and 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.879 Johnson like issued like a national media alert that said, like, 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.560 everybody should probably stop taking taile and All and send 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.080 us your tailing All will send you new stuff that 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.400 we know is good, but um, don't take Kylo, which 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.720 is kind of cool for a company. Yeah, they really 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:08.639 like I mean, they had no choice, I think, but 0:22:08.800 --> 0:22:12.359 the super go on the offensive with this. Uh, and 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:17.000 it's actually due to Johnson and Johnson. Um. It wasn't 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.320 the f d A saying hey, we need to get 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:22.680 tamper resistant packaging. Johnson and Johnson actually said, hey, I 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:26.600 think we should start investigating tampa resistant packaging. So they 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.560 sort of led the charge. Yeah, and then in Congress said, um, 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:35.320 let's make tampering with medicine a federal crime. Yes. And 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.160 then just just six years later, the FDA said, let's 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.680 make these awesome tamper resistant bottles um mandatory. I don't 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.920 know why it took six years that we're talking about 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:49.680 a federal bureaucracy here now, but it seems like that's 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:52.560 something you could have sped through. Just my opinion, but 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:56.840 anyway is when um, that's why it's so hard to 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.920 get into pill bottles these days, thankfully. Yeah, a little 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.840 boil coatings and all that stuff that makes um, doesn't 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:05.800 mean you can't open it, but it means you will 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.040 know if someone has opened it. Yes, you know, like 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:10.520