The radical idea that the federal government can and does use science and facts to address potentially fatal threats to people’s health is the message sent by today’s #stampoftheday, which also reminds us about the powers likely to resist this approach.

The stamp itself is a 3-cent stamp issued on June 27, 1956 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Pure Food and Drug Act. To do so, it shows Harvey W. Wiley, who as the chief chemist of the US Department of Agriculture played a key role in passing the law and then served as the first commissioner of the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration from1906 until 1912, when he left to oversee Good Housekeeping magazine’s laboratories.

Wiley came to Washington from Purdue University where he had been a professor of chemistry. He supposedly accepted the offer after being passed over for the presidency of Purdue, allegedly because he was “too young and too jovial”, unorthodox in his religious belief, and also a bachelor. Wiley brought to Washington a practical knowledge of agriculture, a sympathetic approach to the problems of agricultural industry and an untapped talent for public relations.

At the time, America’s marketplace was flooded with poor, often harmful products. With almost no government controls, unscrupulous manufacturers tampered with products, substituting cheap ingredients for those represented on labels: Honey was diluted with glucose syrup; olive oil was made with cottonseed; and “soothing syrups” given to babies were laced with morphine.

Wiley soon began studying the safety of the chemical preservatives then being employed in foods, including funding from Congress to study the effects of a diet including various preservatives, on human volunteers. These “poison squad” studies drew national attention to the need for a federal food and drug law. Wiley became a crusader and coalition builder in support of national food and drug regulation. His work, and that of Alice Lakey, spurred one million American women to write to the White House in support of a Pure Food and Drug Act. These efforts were greatly aided by the publication of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which included graphic and revolting descriptions of unsanitary conditions and unscrupulous practices rampant in the meatpacking industry. (Sinclair famously said, “I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit it in the stomach.”)

The law, which passed in 1906, banned foreign and interstate traffic in adulterated or mislabeled food and drug products, and it directed the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry (which Wiley headed) to inspect products and refer offenders to prosecutors. It required that active ingredients be placed on the label of a drug’s packaging and that drugs could not fall below purity levels established by the United States Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary. According to some estimates, after labelling was mandated, the sale of patent medicines containing opiates decreased by about a third. Not surprisingly, these efforts generated intense backlash and finally in March 1012, Wiley resigned his leadership of the Chemistry Bureau reportedly because he felt that the opposition paralyze or discredit the basic principles behind the act.

After he left, he took over the Bureau of Foods, Sanitation, and Health for Good Housekeeping, which analyzed food products and published the findings; its “Tested and Approved” seal became the coveted symbol of responsible industry. Over the next 18 years, Wiley played major roles in the fight for tougher government inspection of meat; for pure butter unadulterated with water; and for whole wheat flour, which growers were mixing with other grains. He also co-authored a groundbreaking expose on obesity cures, successfully fought to ensure that sugar wasn’t adulterated, and, as early as 1927, raised questions about health risks associated with tobacco.

I confess that I never paid much attention to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval before I wrote this post. But now I see that hokey as it has seemed, it also is an expression of the value of relying on good information. As Edward Deming famously said, “in God we trust. All others send data.”

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice and work for peace.