Healthcare

The Food and Drug Administration has the responsibility of determining whether or not pharmaceuticals and food additives are safe. With a 1938 act of Congress, there were hundreds of unchecked products. Products like Mercurochrome that had been around for years with seemingly no ill effects were given a "generally recognized as safe" status. In 1978, the FDA began a review of mercury-containing, over-the-counter products. In general, FDA approval requires studies to be done to show a product is safe. This had never been done with Mercurochrome.

Even though Mercurochrome had just a small amount of mercury, mercury poisoning was a consideration. (You may recall the recent FDA advisory that warned pregnant women and young children not to eat certain fish because of high mercury levels.) To affect testing, the FDA pulled the GRAS status and classified mercurochrome as a "new drug" in 1998, which meant that anyone wanting to sell it nationwide had to put it through the rigorous and costly approval process. No one did, and the FDA forbade the sale of Mercurochrome across state lines, which effectively killed the product.

Mercurochrome will probably never be tested because there are more effective antiseptics, such as Merthiolate and metaphen. Whether or not you agree, it was one of those better-safe-than-sorry decisions. Mercury poisoning can harm various body organs and fetuses.