Health Mishaps of the Last Century – What were the Worst?

We had ‘asthma cigarettes’ or burning powders which contained stramonium or nitrates that nullified any benefit due to the deleterious effect of the smoke itself [1,2] around the turn to the mid last century. Marketing at the time declared asthma cigarettes, ‘agreeable to use, certain in their effects, harmless in their action [and] safely smoked by ladies and children’. Such a recommendation today is unthinkable.

An infant feeding bottle that used a rubber tube to deliver the milk to the baby became known as the “Murder Bottle” because of the bacteria that lurked in the rubber tube. It took several decades for the bottle to be banned.

The armed serviced encouraged soldiers to smoke tobacco as a means of “settling the nerves”, though withdrawal symptoms did anything but. So many military people returned home from the wars addicted to nicotine, which often resulted in a premature demise.

The widespread use of asbestos on ships, in asbestos cement sheeting and in-ceiling insulation, was a major danger that took several decades after exposure to eventuate in asbestosis or mesothelioma, both equally devastating.

Feeding dogs with infected sheep offal allowed hydatids to take hold on the human population. 

Thalomid tablets, containing thalidomide, were a major prescribing disaster of the 1950s 

Used as an anti-nauseant and mild sedative in early pregnancy, many children were born with limbs missing. (The only saving grace was that several doctors gave these samples to their wives to use, so they also had the financial means to support their disabled children after birth)
In Australia, we still see the fallout of APC (aspirin, phenacetin, and caffeine) powders, a very popular analgesic until the 1960s. It was a staple in most Aussie households and the mantra, “A cup of tea, a Bex, and a good lie down” entered the everyday language. Later when it was discovered that phenacetin caused kidney damage this ingredient was dropped or changed to paracetamol. However, by then the mantra was synonymous as a pathway to contracting analgesic nephropathy and bladder cancer! [4]

There are countl

ess other missteps in medical history which caused more harm than good. Which stick in your mind?

References

1. https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/the-original-puffer-2/

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2844275/

3. https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-06-28/thalidomide-william-mcbride-named-birth-defect-links/9920446

4. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.12252