<P> Included were examples of harmful drugs, including Banbar, a "cure" for diabetes, protected under the 1906 law, and Lash Lure, an eyelash dye that caused many of its women users to go blind . Also legal under the old law was Raditor, a "radium - containing tonic that sentenced users to a slow and painful death ." This, along with the above court cases, caused the FDA to focus on replacing the now outdated "Wiley Act" of 1906 . </P> <P> The Pure Foods Movement of the 1870s was a grass - roots movement creating the "principal source of political support for the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906". It was a coalition of many different groups, which is why it became so influential . The following explains the influential groups and individuals involved, as it was not an official coalition, rather a movement created by different individual interests . </P> <P> The Ladies Health Association was the first women's group to join the pure foods movement . Starting in 1884, they began a campaign to rid New York City of unsanitary slaughter houses . These women were "energized to take legal action almost as much by the attitude of the city bureaucrats (who were apathetic) was by the need to protect their families and the neighborhood". If the city agency in charge of regulating slaughterhouses had been willing to listen to the Association and clean up the slaughterhouses, the women would have never continued their crusade . However, after a hearing, a slaughterhouse owner refused to clean up his property and this caused the women to pursue the execution of the penalty and continue a "constant vigilance" to keep it from happening again . </P> <P> Inspired by the Association, 11 other city health protective associations grew out of the need to clean up stockyards and slaughterhouses . In Louisiana, Mrs. Richard Bloor took individual action and visited a packinghouse and afterwards "sent a description of the conditions to Upton Sinclair to use in his exposes of the meat industry". The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was borne out of a need to protect communities from alcohol abuse and worked mostly on the local level . </P>

Who inspired the start of the pure food movement