WEBVTT - Poison Control Centers: A Good Thing 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.880 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.680 and there's Charles w Chuck, Brian and Jerry's over here, 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:25.639 and this is stuff you should know. Yeah, how are 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:31.760 you doing? Man? I'm great. I'm have not been poisoned yet. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.800 I have no need to get on the phone and 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.280 call an expert at this point. Luckily, my daughter has 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:43.120 never been poisoned, although that's a big concern for parents. Yeah, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.520 no joke here, No, not joking, nothing funny about poisoned children, 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.600 unless you're talking about little young Brett Michael's. He was 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.200 he was a stitch in a cut up. Oh oh 0:00:54.440 --> 0:01:01.320 oh wow, a little ricky rocket. I was confused, Um, tickled, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.760 and then disappointed, all within like half of a second. Oh, 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:06.640 I thought you were gonna stay disappointed in the joke, 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.720 because that's the fourth stage of recovery. I thought it 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:11.880 was great. Maybe like a month from now, I'll be like, 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.520 you know, that jokes about poison wasn't that great? But 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.639 who knows, maybe I'll also be laughing about it years later. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.559 For example, UM, I watched uh F the other day 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:24.479 for the first time in a little while. I haven't 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:29.280 seen it, and just today, out of the blue apropos 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.000 of nothing, I cracked myself up thinking about one of 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:37.640 the jokes. So, uh, there's a segment about Conan the librarian. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:42.200 Somebody asks for a book on astronomy, and Conan grabs 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.000 the guy and lifts him up by his shirt and 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.840 he goes, don't you know the Dewey decimal system was 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.680 in it? It was a really good approximation of Arnold. 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.520 For a second, I thought it was Bruce Campbell and 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.559 I actually looked on the credits and it's not. But um, 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:02.280 it looks exactly like Bruce Campbell doing Arnold Schwarzenegger. You 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.200 know what I watched the other day for the I 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:09.000 think first time ever did we talk about this pumping iron? Yeah, 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.400 I've never watched it. I think we might have already 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.959 spoken about this, though I did on the show even 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:20.400 maybe No, no, no, definitely not within weeks. No, no, unless, 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:24.120 like my brain is sloshing around, probably has everyone out 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.600 there's going, Yes, Josh, you mentioned it three episodes ago, 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.280 and you're both stupid. It rings a bell that you 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:31.920 did mention it, but it was not weeks ago. I 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.000 think you're confusing your other podcast, Movie Crush. I don't 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.080 think so, because one of them is good and one 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.880 of them is you're crazy cutting up. But you're talking 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.080 about a movie and it couldn't possibly have been mentioned 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.760 on the movie podcast. Is what your position is? Maybe 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:55.519 it was okay, but Movie Crushes the good podcast. Oh well, 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:04.239 I resubmit my you're crazy. I'm sorry. I just poisoned you. Yeah, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.639 and a million listeners, So maybe we should just get 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:08.880 going on this. I thought this was really interesting. I 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:14.200 think we should take an ad break. No. So yeah, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.160 it was interesting and it wasn't like based on anything 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.520 but curiosity. Like I realized that I had no idea 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.800 how poison control centers worked, Like like you, I have 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:29.280 never had occasion to call one. Luckily, um, but they're there, 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.440 and it's kind of like a really great thing that 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.760 they're there and that they are, um there to keep 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.720 scared parents from you know, freaking out because their kids 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.840 ate something weird or their dog ate something weird, or 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.160 you know, they ate something weird. Um, and to say 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.119 basically say like no, you need to get to a hospital. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.200 And not only that, I'm gonna help you throughout this 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.400 process of going to the hospital and staying at the hospital, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.960 because poison control centers are like the most hands on 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.720 remote medical discipline there is. Yeah, and if it was 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.360 a hundred and change years ago, you'd be lucky if 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.320 whatever you accidentally drank in your house even has ingredients 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.560 listed on it. And if it did have ingredients, you'd 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.880 be lucky if they were accurate or truthful, because no 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.200 one cared and you wouldn't be able to call anyone 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.360 to help. And if you went to your local, you know, 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.480 community doctor, good luck if they're even available a hundred 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.680 and ten years ago. And if they were, they'd probably 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.840 be like, jeez, I don't really know what to do 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.200 except maybe try and make you vomit. Yeah, nothing more 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.320 than a two bit bumpkin was what you had for 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.840 a doctor back then, you drinking sody pop. Yeah, exactly, 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:49.240 the sassafras um. But and and so you might say, well, like, 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:51.920 what is a hundred years ago matter? Why not further back? 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.120 That's a really good question, And the answer that is 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:59.120 that poison control is a fairly recent invention, not because 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.559 people just thought of it, but because we didn't really 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.200 need it before, because we didn't really have poisons around 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.880 us prior to about the Industrial Revolution, Like the closest 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:13.200 thing you had to poison was a snake that made 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.040 its way into your house. You definitely didn't open your 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.800 your cabinet beneath the sink, probably because you didn't have 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.320 a sink, but also even if you had a sink, 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.920 you didn't have like household chemicals at your disposal until 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:29.680 industrialization came around. Yeah, I mean before that, there might 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.919 have been you know, you could extract some poison type 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:35.920 things from plants and maybe got something at a at 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.640 a traveling kind of snake oil situation, but it wasn't 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.560 like they were on the general store shelves all over 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.520 the country and then later stores, like you said, until 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.240 the Industrial Revolution when we said, hey, it turns out 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.200 that we can use chemicals. Uh, and they they can 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.600 be very handy. They are dangerous, but I mean, who 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:58.279 would who would drink a bottle of floor cleaner? People 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.159 know better than that, Right, We don't have to tell that, 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:04.200 do we You're right exactly? Um? They said, actually, yes, 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.520 we totally do. And I saw actually a comparison on 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:12.039 a poisoned website that's still today. People apparently get poisoned, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.880 including adults, from accidentally drinking things that they think are 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:20.120 other safer things. And they had bottles of stuff next 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.360 to bottles of others, like food, and you're like, wow, 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:26.880 that really actually does bear a passing resemblance, Like pine 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:29.520 salt looks a lot like apple juice when you put 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.760 it next to a bottle of apple juice. And there's 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.960 a brand of apple juice that looks roughly like the 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:40.800 pine salt label. Yeah, it's not so I think you 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:42.880 could drink um. The most you would do is probably 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.360 embarrass yourself. But I see things that look like toothpaste 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.400 a lot that you would not want to put on 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.599 a toothbrush and put in your mouth. What are you 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.000 hanging around with that looks like toothpaste that you wouldn't 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:55.640 want to brush your teeth with? Well, I mean there's 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.640 all sorts of I mean, like lubes you looving en 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:03.040 up like calamine, and you know, I feel like I've 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.320 seen some other creams and things that look you know, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.479 because that's a it's an obviously a good way to 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.080 carry it, toothpaste like thing, and it is an old 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.680 tube like that, but a lot of them look alike. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.880 Is my point. I see, So do you have to 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.080 be like, don't brush your teeth with this reminder to 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.640 use a children's toothpaste so it has big dinosaurs on it. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.480 I think it wasn't so much back in the day. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.280 Like now today, there's like basically no excuse because we 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.920 spent the last hundred years being um inculcated into the 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.760 idea that there are a lot of dangerous things in 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.040 our everyday lives. But you know, back in the day, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.560 this was all brand new to people and they just 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:48.440 didn't know. Um. Sometimes manufacturers actually didn't know, and they 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:52.000 found out the hard way. And because people were suffering 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.280 from this, it was obvious that there was a need 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.400 for people to say, Okay, we need to start studying 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:59.880 these things a little more. And a lot of the 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:06.280 um great great meaning like really fantastic and triumphant government 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:10.280 bureaucracies here in the United States arose from protecting like 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.120 everyday people from the stuff that they were eating his 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.680 food or using his medicines, like things you're supposed to 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.520 be able to trust. They couldn't trust back then. So 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:23.120 entire sub disciplines of the medical profession kind of developed 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:27.360 to protect people from those things. Yeah, it was mid 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.360 delayed eighteen hundreds when people started saying, hey, this is 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:33.720 a problem, this is an issue. I think a lot 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:36.680 of journalists did great work early on to expose a 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.559 lot of this stuff, a lot of these dangers, and say, 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.240 you know, some of these medicines can be really dangerous. 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:46.160 Then a guy came along named Dr Harvey Wiley. He 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.040 ran the Bureau of Chemistry, which proceeded the f d A, 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:51.640 and he had a group called the Poison Squad, who 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.840 were these healthy young men who would who would poison themselves. 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:57.839 They would eat chemicals to see what happened. Because, as 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:02.480 you'll see kind of throughout this whole epiodisode, much of 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.760 the work of poison control, from the very beginning all 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:10.040 the way up through today is just simply categorizing and 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.439 listing out things that make people sick and exactly how 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.400 they make them sick. It's like it's like a big database, right, 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:18.760 and then in the best case scenario, how to treat 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.920 with somebody who accidentally ingest that thing too. You know. 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.320 But we talked about Wiley and the Poison Squad. We 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.520 did an episode years ago UM called Does the FDA 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.760 Protect Americans? And we talked about them and like, hats 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:37.640 off to them. But between the muckrakers and Dr Wiley, um, 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.280 not just government was kind of forced into action, but 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.920 the public started to become educated about, you know, just 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:48.480 how dangerous their everyday life was, where before they hadn't 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.200 really realized it on any kind of collective level, you know. Yeah, 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:54.319 I think it was the UM and I then we 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.320 talked about the Pure Food and Drug Act, Right, didn't 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.400 you just say that? Not yet? Okay? That was nineteen 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.040 o six, also called it the Wiley Act after Harvey Wiley, 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.360 and it basically said, hey, you gotta start labeling stuff. 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.959 You gotta be really clear about what's in certain products, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:16.280 especially if it contains alcohol, heroin, caffeine, cannabis. You gotta 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.400 let people know what's in these products. And again with 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.800 the media, they were bringing it to light, and if 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.040 you were a company at the time, it became a 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.199 thing where like just from a pr standpoint, you needed 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.520 to start doing this and be a little more transparent. 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.080 Otherwise you would get a bad name if poisoning was 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.360 in the newspaper and your product was you know, kind 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.839 of to blame. Yeah, yeah, which I mean that's kind 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.960 of what the um. The Pure Food and Drug Act 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.080 of nineteen o six was predicated on the idea that 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.000 a company would want to protect its image or business 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.120 and not suffer ruination from bad PR. But they found 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:56.520 out um in oh, I guess the mid nineteen thirties 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.280 that that just wasn't the case. Um, well, I think 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:02.840 we should do a short stuff on this this episode. 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.959 It's just nuts what happened. But the upshot is that 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:13.880 a preparation of sulfonillamide, an antibiotic, was prepared using anti freeze. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:17.319 Um and there was yeah and there and to give 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.439 it like a sweet flavor, raspberry flavor. That's sweet, sweet 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.240 and free. That's right. But the upshot of the whole 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.800 thing was that there was no regulation that said, you 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.200 guys need to test this first. They can just market it. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.240 And they actually got him on a technicality, but a 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:37.000 hundred people died from this, and that really hastened the 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.320 UM the law. I think it was an amendment to 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.920 the Pure Food and Drug Act that basically said, Okay, 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.160 not only do you have to label stuff now when 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:49.120 it has any kind of chemicals or weird ingredients, you 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.760 also need to test these things first before you release 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.800 them to the public. That was a huge, huge um 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:00.400 foundation that was laid to protect just people like you 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.320 and me from the stuff that's in our kitchen or 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:07.360 our bathroom, you know. And it's not like somebody said, Okay, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.200 next up poison control centers. But that was kind of 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.360 like the the zeitgeist that was churning as poison control 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.560 centers started to come along, you know, tangentially to that. 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.680 All Right, so the groundwork is laid, Let's take a 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:23.960 break and we'll come back and get going with in 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:48.520 earnest poison control centers. I love these episodes, Chuck, where 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.280 we spend a full third talking about not the thing. No, 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:56.480 but this is all important. I know. Take it easy 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.880 on yourself. I'm trying. I'm still recover ring from that 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:06.480 that haymaker you threw earlier movie crush. Yeah. Oh, by 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.800 the way, since uh, we don't do any kind of 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.839 podcast promotion for our shows at our network, I would 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:16.439 like to promote the Alan Ball six ft Under anniversary episode. 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:18.760 If you were a fan of six ft Under, I'm 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.000 really really proud of this episode and go check it out. 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.640 It's it's out now. So you interviewed the Alan Ball 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:30.000 creators feed under my basement on my zoom. That's so awesome. 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:35.000 Did you say sixth anniversary? Couldn't be six? Okay, I 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.280 thought you said sixth for some reason. Yeah, that's really 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.199 and plus I guess that'd be kind of a bizarre 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.679 anniversary to celebrate now that they think about it, the 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:45.240 sixth anniversary. When does that come out? It's out, it's live. 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:49.280 That's great. Congratulations, thanks man, it's a good one. So um, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.080 all right, you were being unkind to my friend when 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:59.880 I had to plug make that plug? Who Dr Chevalier Jackson? No, you, oh, Emily, 0:13:59.920 --> 0:14:03.200 and always say that when we're beating ourselves up, say 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:08.280 that be nicer, to be nicer to my friend. Alright, 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:13.520 So twentieth century is is going strong. People are starting 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.720 to understand, uh and you know, they were making efforts 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.760 to try and catalog some stuff, but it was really 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.600 sort of all over the place in the early few decades. 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.720 I think in the in the twenties. Uh, lie that 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:28.640 you made soup with and some people still mix up 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:30.920 with was kind of one of the big poisoners of 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.520 children because depending on what form you had it, and 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.640 it could look like milk or sugar, and there was 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:42.640 a doctor named Dr Chevalier Keihode Jackson who was a laryngologist. 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.440 That's gotta be how you say it right, not a laryngologist, 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.640 I guess so. I'd never said it out loud. I've 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:51.560 always said it in my head, but I've never noticed 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:53.400 how I say it. Well, I think you think you 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.080 said it. I mean laryngologists would be what you think, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:15:01.440 but laryn geologists sounds more correct, even though it sounds funny. Aaryngeologist, Yeah, 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:03.480 it's got to be that. How maybe it's just called 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:07.640 him an E and T. Maybe it's laryngeologist or a 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:12.200 larynge al list. Lauren, No, you're missing a couple of 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.800 letters there, lurngel lists, the laryngelo list. There you go. 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.320 Oh goodness, it still cracks me that word for the 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.560 rest of the episode. It still cracks me up after 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.640 fourteen years when people sweethearts right in and say, hey, 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:28.560 you know, I'm an expert. If you want to help 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:33.120 pronounce me pronounce pronunciating something right exactly, give me up. 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.880 I'll help you pronunciate all all day long. Goodness, alright. 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.440 What's funny is it'll be like from a laryngelologist, and 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:45.280 we'll just never mentioned larynge al alogists again, so hopefully 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.400 unless it comes up a lot like our new friend 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:55.880 molly Bidnium, molly B, molly B is all over alright. 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:58.560 So this laryngologist was having a lot of cases of 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.880 kids coming in and swallowing LIE. Wouldn't kill you, but 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.600 it would tear up your esophagus so bad that you 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.280 might die because you can't eat, which is just awful. 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.640 So Dr Jackson said, we gotta really do something about 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:16.840 this LIE problem, and uh really championed the Federal Caustic 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:20.920 Poison Act of ninety seven, which basically kind of only 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.480 covered I don't know if it only covered LIE, but 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:29.360 it only covered caustic poisons. Yeah, it was pretty narrow 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.000 and pretty specific, and it basically just said you have 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.840 to put a warning symbol on right now on those 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.600 specific things. But it was a it was an early 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.840 um law related to the idea of household chemicals being 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.560 dangerous to people and letting people now, because up to 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.640 that point, the producers of LIE were like, uh, no, 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.960 we have no interest in labeling our product is dangerous. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.040 Why would we tell people that. In fact, a lot 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.640 of them marketed the exact opposite were like safe on 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.320 skin gentle, you know, like a mountain rain to that 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.440 kind of stuff. And it's like, no, it's it's lie. 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.560 This is like drain cleaner, you know, or oven cleaner. 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.560 It's like the worst of the worst. But that that 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.840 law got it past. So that helped laid the groundwork 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.680 as well. Um. And then in the thirties there was 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.919 a guy who came along named Dr J. I mean, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:23.720 it's spelled arena, so maybe it's arena or arena, one 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:27.080 of the two. And he was a pediatrician at Duke, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:30.680 and he basically said, look, this problem extends a lot 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.200 more to beyond lie, Like there's a lot of chemicals 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.880 that are poisoning kids. I think he actually did write 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.560 a thing about lie in particular. Um, but he was 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.240 he was saying like, no, this is this is worth cataloging. 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.200 And I think he started the process. He started the 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.600 whole cataloging poisons trend that became so huge in the thirties. Yeah, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:56.440 he wrote a book called Beyond the Lie Colon just 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:01.920 kidding that that subtitle is terrible. Uh So, if you 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.639 want to look at the might be the father of 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.800 the Poison Control Center. Yeah, this is the guy. Not 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.240 not quite as awesome as being like the Godfather of 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.399 Soul or the Queen of Soul, or the father of 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.480 hip hop or Father Time. But if you're the father 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:22.480 of the Poison Control Center, you've done a lot of good. 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.679 And it was a pharmacist in Chicago name. Uh, I'm 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.399 gonna say Dolomon, Louis Dolman with a silent G on 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.560 the front. Does that make sense. I was gonna do 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.200 a shout out to our Australian listeners and say his 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:40.399 name is Louis Goodman. For all I know it is 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:42.760 Louie good Almond, but I'm gonna say Louis Dolman. And 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.639 he was the first person to really start collecting this data. Uh. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.640 And he did it on index cards. Like I said, 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:51.879 much of the early work and still a lot of 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.800 the work they do, is categorizing and cataloging this stuff, 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.239 just because you gotta know what card to look up 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.359 if someone calls in to say they've been poisoned. And 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.440 this was through the forties, and he established a hotline. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.320 Again this was only in the Chicago area, but you 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:13.080 could for um, I mean seven basically call and get 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.920 information as yeah, oh no. He would answer the phone 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.560 day or night. Yep. He basically said, I'm starting this. 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.200 I'm going to be by God, I'm gonna be known 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.960 as the father is something, and if it's poison control centers, 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.719 so be it. He had his little recipe book cards 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.040 literally and would just sit there and thumb through him 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:34.280 and read what he thought was going on. It's amazing. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:39.399 He was very famous. His catchphrase was hold please, and 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.440 then you could hear him sorting through and be like, no, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:47.879 that's nothing. Eventually those made it to microfiche, right. So um, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.800 he was not just because he created these um index 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.240 cards and started taking calls twenty four hours a day. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.359 That's not the only reason he was the father of 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:00.240 the poison control center. He actually started founding with another guy, Ducker, 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.320 Edward Press, the first poison control centers that were beyond like, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.159 you know, his bedroom at three in the morning. He 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.000 founded I think eleven of them to start, and then 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.560 eventually they created a trend that would be followed later 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.480 where they were consolidated into a single one, which it 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.560 turns out, as far as poison control centers is definitely 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.639 way more efficient than having a bunch of different poison 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:28.000 control centers, and they they had like nurses, they had 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.520 doctors working there, they had people who knew what they 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:36.800 were talking about, and they were creating like the first database, 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:41.880 the first generalized information about poisonings, about toxicology, like really 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:47.200 helping establish this field from taking data from real world 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.120 examples that were the people who were calling in for help. 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.040 So it was like a twofold thing. They were helping 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.000 the people there, they were helping the doctors who were 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.160 helping their patients UM, and they were also gathering data 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.800 to create kind of this this foundation for understanding the 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.520 effects of toxic chemicals on the human body. Yeah, and 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:11.080 this was I think within five years of that Chicago 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.159 system there were two d and sixty five centers opened 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.119 in the US, but again still no sort of central 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:24.159 database or national framework or even certification process. Uh. They 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:25.840 were doing a lot of good work, but these first 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.160 UM efforts were really different than today's in a couple 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.040 of big ways. Uh. One, I mean the biggest one 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.119 is that when you call now, you are the human 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:38.840 that has just swallowed something. Calling Back in the day, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.760 if you're poison you called your doctor, then the doctor 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.199 would call the poison control center and get their advice 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.120 from there. And I think nineteen sixty one is when 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.920 these direct calls from the public started to be introduced, 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.720 which was a big, big, super necessary change, so that 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:58.960 I mean, that is a huge deal to to to 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.840 just go straight to poison control center because before you 0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:03.560 had to go to your doctor and then they went 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.440 to the poison control center. And apparently that's still the 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.240 case in a lot of European countries, but in the 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.000 United States you can just call somebody who knows that 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.919 they're talking about with poisons. And that is a really 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:20.760 big um effect that poison control centers have is they 0:22:21.560 --> 0:22:26.240 prevent unnecessary healthcare spending because, as we'll see, the vast 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:29.920 majority of UM calls to poison control centers can be 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.879 resolved like at the place it's happening, whether it's work 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:34.560 or whether it's at your house or something like that. 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.000 You don't actually have to go to the hospital. So 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.200 if you're not showing up to an emergency room or 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:41.879 a doctor's office or something, that means that's time that 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:44.639 somebody else who does need to be there can be 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.480 be having attention paid to them, and it's just less 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.840 money spent on healthcare for you showing up. And I 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:56.200 saw in some Massachusetts Rhode Island poison control center website 0:22:56.600 --> 0:22:59.800 they estimated that for every dollar invested into a poison 0:23:00.040 --> 0:23:04.440 troll center, it saves thirteen dollars in healthcare spending and 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:07.720 lost productivity. It's amazing, it really is. And that's a 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:09.879 huge function that they play. You know, you think of 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.280 like poison control centers is basically being like, oh, I 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:16.560 just accidentally drank some anti freeze or something, uh, and 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:19.720 you know, I need to call and get some help. 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:22.439 But there's you know, these other roles that are easily 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:25.159 overlooked that are really important as well that they that 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.719 they play. That's kind of evolved over time totally. Um. 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:33.399 So I mentioned the two big changes over the years, uh, 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:35.440 and one was that you call in instead of your doctor. 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.080 The other big one was back then, in the early days, 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:43.119 it was almost entirely centered around pediatric poisoning. Uh. And 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:44.880