The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-03-19
BENzoATE OF SODA

Benzoate OF soda as a preservative Of food will
not down. Notwithstanding the report of the
referee board which made exhaustive tests as to the
effect of the drug upon the human system and
found it perfectly harmless" issue has been taken
with that report. Samuel Hopkins, writing in the
February issue of Hampton's Magazine, points out
in plain words the erroneous impression got bv
the general public concerning the effects of ben
zoate of soda as a food preventative Mr. Adams
says the newspapers and through them, the pub
lie, accepted the conclusions of the examining
board without examining the underlying data Fur
Their than this, he says that one fact stands out
clear: That the reasoning which declared benzoate
of soda harmless upon the evidence adduced by the
expert judges themselves, is as alien to scientific
truth as it is abhorrent to ordinary common sense
In telling of the tests conducted with the poi
son squad" Mr.. Adams says: Sixteen men. con-
slstlng of two squads of six men each and one of
four constituted the experimental forces Of these
sixteen, two men came through practically i'm
mune, except for minor manifestations The other
fourteen feeders upon the exculpated drug exhb-
tied certain peculiarities worthy of detailing.
We find fourteen out of sixteen benzoate-fed
men affected variously, in the periods of dosage,
with marked disorders of stomach bowels, kidneys.
temperature, pulse and general condition; rather
an arresting record for strong young men in good
training"
Which puts new light on the subject of the
tests by the famous poison squad" a light which
brings back the old charge made and reiterated bv
doctors, writers and some manufacturers that ben
zoate of soda is used for no other reason than to
preserve an inferior product, made of refuse and
unfit for human food. When it is remembered that
1t required some seventeen years of earnest effort
on the part of medical men and students of dietet
les to get the pure food law on the statute books
and that today its provisions in some respects are
practically nullifed by unscrupulous manufactur-
ers working through the referee board of consulting
scientific experts, it is indeed serious indictment
which Mr.. Adams presents. Of this feature of the
case, he says it is the law that is being poisoned
and in its corruption every citizen is being cor
rupted
1t is, indeed, very difficult to decide question
when the doctors disagree, but one thing remains
which is safe: Don't take their medicine.
Benzoate of soda is not necessary to preserve
foodstuffs made of the right materials. that rnncb
is granted by many manufacturers, some of whom
use none OF the drug in their products. And there
isn't housewife in thousand who uses the poison
IN her annual canning of fruit or making of catsup
The one safe method to pursue is to use none of the
"one-tenth OF one per cent benzoate of soda" prep
arations. And when the people have learned this.
as long as the law requires the label to say that the
preventative is used, and quit buying the doped
food, there will soon result change in the manu-
faeture of foodstufs which will be as beneficial to
the consuming public as the pure food law was in
tended to be.