It’s so much worse than the headline. IIRC, mercury and lead (among others like just straight ass white paint) were used as whitening agents, and the milk was specifically marketed towards immigrants as an affordable and nutritious infant food. It caused a huge scandal at the time and (shooting from the hip here, double checking encouraged) prompted NY to implement some of the first food health laws in the US. I can’t help but think that this is the kind of market innovation we’ll get as republicans ‘deregulate’.
This is exactly what deregulation leads to. People seem to forget that regulations have a reason, just like vaccines have a reason. Granted some regulations are heavy handed or just overbearing, but then tweak them… don’t remove regulations because we never had someone do what it was designed to prevent.
Every safety standard in every type of business or just in life in general is written in blood.
Another great example of why regulations and government health departments are so important.
libertarians internally raging
Someone correct me if I’m wrong. But from the article I would assume that the infant deaths were due to additives to the milk not because of the diet of the cow.
While the adulteration surely didn’t help, I don’t think I’d trust pure milk from these cows, either:
Swill milk dairies were noted for their filthy conditions and overpowering stench both caused by the close confinement of hundreds (sometimes thousands) of cows in narrow stalls where, once they were tied, they would stay for the rest of their lives, often standing in their own manure, covered with flies and sores, and suffering from a range of virulent diseases. These cows were fed boiling distillery waste, often leaving the cows with rotting teeth and other maladies.
That’s beyond cruel, ffs
Probably most, although the disease likely didn’t help.
There’s a behind the bastards episode on this, formaldehyde was a popular additive to improve shelf life, as were several other horrible things. Most of the other additives were used to restore color, flavor, and texture after the milk had been diluted so heavily with water.
Aaaand this is why my milk costs $10/gallon. Animals need to be treated well.
Sorry, but they still aren’t treated well.
Jesus Christ. It’s $2.19 here…
On the contrary, milk should be even more expensive. The only reason it isn’t is because of a huge network of government subsidies at nearly every step.
