Insecticides and Aplastic Anemia

Abstract

TO prove that a drug or chemical has an etiologic relation to aplastic anemia is a difficult task. This is due mainly to the low incidence with which their use is followed by the disease, making it necessary to accumulate a sizable number of suspicious cases to find a statistical argument in its favor. Thus, recognition of the aplastic-anemia-inducing effect of chloramphenicol, the most offending drug in this respect in the United States, was delayed for several years.¹ Likewise, the indirect toxic effects of the insecticides are not widely recognized though a few cases of blood dyscrasias after their use . . .