@article{ref1,
title="Ginger Jake and the blues: a tragic song of poisoning",
journal="Veterinary and human toxicology",
year="1995",
author="Woolf, Alan D.",
volume="37",
number="3",
pages="252-254",
abstract="Prohibition, &quot;The Noble Experiment&quot;, ushered in speakeasys, gangsters and bathtub gin in the 1920s. For many Americans, however, it led to a period of joblessness, hard times, and austerity. The story of Jamaican Ginger (&quot;Jake&quot;) poisoning, in which batches of a cheap, alcoholic tonic were laced with tri-ortho cresyl phosphate (TOCP) is one of cynical despicable behavior on the part of those responsible and a tragic enduring legacy for the invisible group of Americans who were victimized. TOCP, a potent organophosphate, caused an axonal dying-back neuropathy affecting mainly large muscle groups. Jake poisoning struck about 50,000 adults, mostly poor middle-aged vagrants with little medical care or social standing. Their symptoms and stories were told not only in medical journals but also in song. Hillbilly jazzmen sang of the &quot;Jake Leg Blues&quot; with a resignation to the fate of their own undoing, brought on by the intemperance of a wasted life. The postscript is grim--those responsible received little punishment; many who drank &quot;Jake&quot; were left both uncompensated and crippled by irreversible paralysis.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-6296",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}