Evening star., 1939-04-05
Drug Stores Take on
New Food Drug Act
Appearance June Is
Provisions Dictute
Changes in Labels
Of Goods Sold
BY STAFF Correspondent Of The Star.

| BY STAFF Correspondent Of The Star.
BALTIMORE, April 5.-The old
corner drug store will look strangely
unfamiliar the morning of June 25
On that day all the old familiar
bottles of household remedies and
beauty lotions on the shelves will
bear new labels in place of those
which some of them have displayed
since grandmother's day. There are
many thousands of them. 1t will be
a big job to get the countless mil
lions of labels printed on time, and
drug houses are beginning to despair
The drug store shelves must ap.
pear in their new dress to comply
with the provisions of the Federal
food, drug and cosmetic law. the
modification of the much-debated
TugWell bill, which Congress finally
enacted on June IS. 1888, with the
provision that the labelling require
ment should go into effect exactly
one year later. Now an extension is
being sought and as vigorously Op-
posed by the Department of Agri-
cultures Food and Drug Adminis-
tration, which maintains that pro-
crastination might ultimately de-
feat the entire purpose of the law.
Grocery Store Changes Due.
The grocery store across the street
also will look unfamiliar, because
much the same labelling law will ap-
ply to foodstuffs, although here the
Secretary of Agriculture has con-
siderable range for executive modi-
f1cation by declaring certain prod
ucts standard. In such cases the
labelling will be only to designate
variations from the standard.
But the drugs and cosmetics must
display prominently the ingredients
used in them and instructions as to
safe dosage. The way the admin
istration of the law is shaping up
was explained to the American
Chemical Society here yesterday by
DR.. P. B. Dunbar, assistant chief of
the Food and Drug Administration.
Already, he explained, some of the
provisions are in effect. All new
drugs" now must have the approval
of the Secretary of Agriculture be-
fore they can be sold to the general
public, even on physicians pre-
scription. These new preparations
for which some medicinal value is
claimed, he said, now are coming in
at rate of about two a day. -Four
hundred have been passed upon
since the law went into effect and
200 applications are waiting investi-
CATION. Each must be thoroughly
tested to determine not so much
whether its claims are reliable. but
whether it has any poisonous effects
in the dosages recommended.
Coloring Matter Scrutinized.
The Food and Drug Administra-
ton chemists also are carrying out
the provisions of the law in respect
to the use of coloring matter derived
from coal tar dyes in food, drugs or
cosmetics. These are used widely by
metics. Lipstick, rouge and fin
gernail polish contain one or more
of them.
For the most part the tests are
being made on rats in the Washing
ton laboratories of the administra
ton. There, DR.. Dunbar told the
chemists, the visitor finds animals
running around with the wierdest
combinations of colors. They are the
guinea pigs" of American feminine
beauty. Patches of their fur are
shaved off and the dyes applied to
see whether there is any poisonous
reaction.
While a reasonably lenient en-
forcement of the labelling law is ex-
pected at first, DR.. Dunbar stressed
to the chemists, many of whom are
struggling with the required new
labels, that the provisions are plain
and all preparations should be well
under way for compliance. One OF
the great burdens, it was admitted
will fall on the wholesaler, who may
be overstocked with goods bearing
the old labels. These he cannot sell
across State lines and the manufac-
turers will be obliged to take them
off his hands.