Healthy public relations: The FDA's 1930s legislative campaign

In this article, I argue that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is an oft-overlooked government agency that acts to preserve and secure the publi c's health. From its early years as an agency charged with enforcement of t he 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act, the FDA not only protected the public's he alth but also made the public aware of its mission, using methods as divers e as displays at county fairs and at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, radio p rogramming, and active correspondence. The agency encouraged the public to protect itself, particularly in those arenas in which the FDA had no regula tory authority. In addition, it may have overstepped its boundaries when it actively solicited public support for a bill submitted to Congress in the early 1930s. In the dark days of the Great Depression, the FDA contended no t only with limited resources and its own feelings of inadequacy in terms o f what could and could not be done to protect the populace, but also With " guinea pig" books that horrified and angered many readers. By 1938, when th e agency prevailed and the revisions to the 1906 Act passed Congress and We re signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the FDA had done all that a responsible public health agency should do, and more.