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Pure Food and Drugs

Researchers at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Devices and Radiological Health develop a method to calculate radiation doses from medical fluoroscopy. Ensuring the safety, efficacy, and proper labeling of medical devices for human use is the major function of this Center. Even before World War I, the Food and Drug Administration was taking action against quack drugs and devices which claimed to he radioactive. The Public Health Service became concerned about workers who contracted cancer from radioactive luminous paint they applied to watch dials and the increase in overdosage with diagnostic X-rays. With the development of electronic technology came new products such as televisions, microwave ovens, and lasers which could emit harmful radiation. Congress passed a Comprehensive Radiation Health and Safety Act in 1968 to deal with such problems. In 1971, the product-related activities of the Public Health Service's Bureau of Radiological Health were transferred to the Food and Drug Administration, while its environmental activities were shifted to the new Environmental Protection Administration.

c. 1985

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