The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Free Audiobook Download by Deborah Blum

The Poison Squad is a fascinating story about the fight for food safety in America. Deborah Blum tells the story of when a chemist with a single-minded determination and few resources waged a battle against industrial food giants, government regulation, and toxic substances like borax, arsenic and mercury. Using meticulous research and historical context as well as personal interviews with historians, Blum has created an enthralling, entertaining work of nonfiction that will forever change how you think about our nation's history.

Kirsten Potter does a wonderful job with this audiobook. Her voice is clear and gentle, making the book easy to follow. Blum's writing is well researched and the story of the plague that swept San Francisco in 1900 is still fascinating - even if it isn't as interesting as it was when I first read it more than twenty years ago.

When America was just beginning to become industrialized, food purity wasn't as much of a concern. The Industrial Revolution helped shift the world's focus on food safety in the 1900s when many products became contaminated with dangerous bacteria. Deborah Blum spent years researching and writing about this time period to help others better understand what led to this change.

When Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, it became the first publication to alert Americans to the dangers of pesticides. It is no wonder that Carson's landmark book has been heralded as one of the most influential publications of the twentieth century. Now, award-winning author and journalist Deborah Blum tells her spellbinding story about a turn-of-the-century muckraking chemist who risked everything to expose the dangers of food additives and pesticides.

The Poison Squad is a story of one chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century. Deborah Blum, author and professor of science journalism, tells the story of scientist's work to make sure that our food wasn't poisoned with deadly chemicals. It's a story about public health, courage and the idea that sometimes these matters should be left in the hands of experts.

Deborah Blum's 'The Poison Squad' offers an eye-opening look at the massive food-safety missteps of the early 1900s. Most notably, her primary focus is on how food adulteration was rampant during this time period. People like Upton Sinclair were able to expose these misdeeds and make waves in the US, with the goal of improving public health - but it wasn't until 1928 that Congress passed a law making it illegal for companies to add harmful substances to food products.