When Women Used Lysol as Birth Control | Mother Jones

Do you realize how scary this
or have you even though about it? Many of the household products our
parents may have used for cleaning, pest control, hygiene, and minor
medical issues are now banned and considered dangerous today.

Today
doctors, the companies who manufactured and sold and yes the United
States government admit today that a lot of that stuff was actually
dangerous for the public's health and yes some even deadly after time
because they where found to be carcinogenic, the example here of Lysol
which is now used for disinfecting the home caused poisoning for some of
the poor women who where duped into using by the advertising and the
companies would continue to advertise these products as "doctor
recommended" even after it was found to be hazardous.

Of course
two prime examples everyone is familiar with  (or should be) those of
course are cigarettes and lead based paint. Even today when you rent or
buy a older home there may still be lead based paint in the home and the
realty  company has to inform you if you have lead based paint or not.
Children back in the early 1900's to the 70's where getting led
poisoning (as we know children put weird things in their mouths) from
eating paint chips. Of course we all know the dangers of smoking.

Here
is one many of us probably remember but don't know it is now illegal to
sell in the United States, Mercurochrome when I was a kid this was the
mothers remedy for the everyday boo boo's that we used to call "Monkey
Blood", was used as an antiseptic and was advertised as "safe for all
ages", it came in a small bottle with a little dropper and was a very
dark red . I remember I would skin my knee or elbow and come howling to
my mom and I would be screaming for the "Monkey Blood" and she would
apply it to my scrape. Like I said it was dark red and tuned your skin
and boo boo the same color.

Now here is the problem that our
mother didn't know back then, there is two problems with Mercurochrome,
first and the major problem is it contains Mercury and Mercury Poisoning
can be very debilitating and fatal, which is the main reason it has
been banned.

The second reason is believe it or not was it's
color, doctors wanted it banned or the color changed because it was so
dark red that if the person using it actually did get an infection, the
color would cover up the beginning signs of an infection and the person
could get very sick or die if infection wasn't caught in time. This
complaint was filed before anyone even realized the danger of Mercury.

Now
here is the good news as far as studies done today tell us, that there
have been no reported illnesses or deaths reported from the generation
back in the 1900's (1900-1980) who used this product. That's for now
because the majority of us that did use this are now in there 40's 50's
and 60's so if there is any long term effects to be found they would
probably start showing up in us now.

When Women Used Lysol as Birth Control | Mother Jones