Our Free Enterprise System Is at Stake: CFCs, IDEOLOGY, AND MANIPULATED UNCERTAINTY

In the 1920s, people started replacing their old iceboxes with mechanical refrigerators, sometimes called icebox machines. Then a problem emerged: the new devices used toxic gases for cooling, and the gases occasionally leaked out and killed people. Chicago health authorities in the summer of 1929 announced that the mysterious recent deaths of eighteen city residents could be blamed on leaks of methyl chloride, one of the three commonly used refrigerants. Newspapers wrote of growing “icebox anxiety” caused by the reported deaths, and within weeks federal authorities rushed out a statement to prevent undue excitement over the issue. The US Public