Remember what Santayana said about those not knowing history needing to repeat it .
The New York Times archive yields this 60-year-old headline (February 20, 1949): "CITY STOPS THE SALE OF SALT SUBSTITUTE ; But Mustard Says No Deaths Have Been Reported -- Public Warned of Danger." The study reports how the NYC Health Department withdrew approval of the very best taste-alike salt substitute ever known: lithium chloride. The City Health Department was interested in salt reduction apparently (the City noted that lithium chloride was being "used widely as a substitute for common table salt"); but just as apparently, didn't do their homework. Lithium chloride may taste like salt -- and no other salt substitute has been found that matches its taste -- but it's a deadly toxin and the substance administered to execute death row prisoners. As we've told the NYC Department of Health: first do no harm (pdf 53.83 kB) . We didn't realize they'd already been put on warning.
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