From my reading, the polio epidemic was due to the widespread use of mercury as a teething treatment (they called it teething paralysis). At the end of the 1800s, they started using pesticides in earnest. Forrest Maready gives an amazing account of all of this in his book, The Moth in the Iron Lung. I just found stuff on twitter that brings this to the fore. If you're interested, https://twitter.com/forrestmaready/status/1005130766160887808?lang=fi . They've ALWAYS lied about this stuff; it's very lucrative, to say the least.

This as well: https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/101502128/PDF/101502128.pdf

From my reading, the polio epidemic was due to the widespread use of mercury as a teething treatment (they called it teething paralysis). At the end of the 1800s, they started using pesticides in earnest. Forrest Maready gives an amazing account of all of this in his book, The Moth in the Iron Lung. I just found stuff on twitter that brings this to the fore. If you're interested, https://twitter.com/forrestmaready/status/1005130766160887808?lang=fi . They've ALWAYS lied about this stuff; it's very lucrative, to say the least.