Toxic History!

Construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel was one of the worst occupational disasters in American history. Its construction resulted in large numbers of casualties, both acute and chronic, secondary to silicosis and other occupational related illnesses.

Explore the medical history of King George III, a monarch whose reign was marked by brilliance, chaos, and the shadow of madness. This toxicological exploration unveils the personal struggles behind the politics, from the medical records of his time to contemporary interpretations and possibilities.

There has been doping in sport throughout modern times, but before the steroid era athletes used different agents to enhance their performance. Learn about how strychnine use in the 1904 and 1908 Olympic marathons may have propelled runners to victory.

In 1983 patients began presenting with sudden onset Parkinsonian symptoms after using a new designer drug. Dr. Langston eventually was able to link the cases to exposure to the contaminant MPTP, and the future of Parkinson’s research was forever changed as a result.

Rice, a staple food for a large portion of the world population, has been documented to have been cultivated, grown, and consumed for thousands of years. For those living around the Jinzu river in Toyama Prefecture in Japan in the early 1900s, rice and water consumption caused a pollution disease called “Itai-Itai disease”. Bone and join pains and kidney disease were ever increasing around this region of Japan, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that cadmium was suspected as the primary culprit.

Throughout history, women have sought to control their fertility with substances that “regulate” menstruation, terminate pregnancies, or induce labor. Teas, concoctions, and medicinal compounds containing pennyroyal, rue, artemsia, ergot, cohosh, quinine, and lead have caused significant toxicity and death when taken as abortifacients. In this talk we will explore the history of abortifacients from antiquity through modern times, and discuss cases of toxicity through the lens of the women who have utilized these remedies.

This is the story of Dr. Leslie Keeley and his gold cure elixir. His Keeley Institute in a small midwestern town was perhaps the most widely recognized alcohol treatment program in the United States in the 1890s. Although his elixir may have been no more than snake oil his treatment program foreshadowed treatment as we know it today.

State-sponsored poisoning and assassination is deeply ingrained in Russian politics. You’ve heard of Alexander Litvinenko, but where was the poison and delivery plan developed? And who were the other victims of Moscow’s poison laboratory?

Drinkers asked for a bigger and more stable head and the brewers came up with a novel solution. The heaviest drinkers that couldn’t even afford a cup to pour their beer into and see a head started to mysteriously die of heart failure. An investigation begins!

As one of the largest man made disasters in public health history, the discovery and realization of the disastrous effects of thalidomide in pregnant patients has paved a way to safe medication discovery and utilization. From this tragedy in modern medicine led new regulatory pathways, transparency in drug development, and expanded procedures to ensure therapeutic medication supply is not only effective, but safe.