President Kennedy eventually awarded Dr. Kelsey a medal for Distinguished Civilian Service. Congress responded to thalidomide by passing the Kefauver-Harris drug law, which the President signed in October, 1962. This law, for the first time, gave FDA the power to require specific procedures for testing new drugs for safety and effectiveness. But a much broader change began to occur as a result of the thalidomide disaster. Up until this time, some Americans had been concerned about cancer from chemicals, but thalidomide brought home the dangers of teratogens and mutagens.
Teratogens cause birth defects and mutagens cause inheritable genetic changes.
As a result, Americans in general became a little less eager to try the latest drug for every new ailment. And they gained new respect for the great damage a small amount of a chemical might do. The next developments in our consciousness of chemicals occurred in the workplace. Workers have always been the people exposed first to new chemicals, and exposed most heavily. Up until 1970, when Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, workers were not protected in any systematic way from chemicals.