Ziratol (Bristol-Myers Company, New York), in compliance with the federal “insecticide law,” is declared to contain 32 per cent. water and 30 per cent. glycerin as inert constituents. Regarding its active constituents the manufacturer makes the following and meaningless statement:
“Ziratol is prepared from Phenols of the Naphthalene series and consists of a solution of such Phenols in a mixture of soap, water and glycerin.”
In response to inquiry, the A. M. A. Chemical Laboratory examined Ziratol and reported that its essential constituent appears to be alpha-napthol,[120] and that it has, essentially, the following composition by weight: Alpha-napthol 18 per cent., soap 20 per cent., glycerin and water sufficient to make 100 per cent.
A Ziratol advertising circular gives a tabulated report of germicidal tests, said to have been made according to the method of the Hygienic Laboratory of the U. S. Public Health Service. When this work was done is not stated. According to these tests Ziratol possesses a phenol-coefficient of 13.66. The claim that Ziratol is ten times more efficient than carbolic acid (phenol) is evidently based on this report.
These claims of high germicidal value are contradicted by an examination made for the Council. A specimen purchased in the open market was examined independently by two operators, to determine the Hygienic Laboratory phenol-coefficient. One observer found the phenol coefficient to be 2.54. The other reported it to be 3.09. Evidently the germicidal value of Ziratol is greatly exaggerated in the advertising claims and, in fact, does not exceed that of the official compound solution of cresol (Liquor Cresolis Compositus, U. S. P.) for which a phenol-coefficient of about three has been established. (See New and Nonofficial Remedies, 1917, p. 82.) The claim that Ziratol is “the Universal Antiseptic and Germicide” is manifestly an unwarranted exaggeration.
The referee in submitting this report to the Council recommended that Ziratol be held in conflict with Rule 1 (secrecy of composition) and Rule 6 (unwarranted and exaggerated claims). After the report had been submitted, it was found that a new advertising circular, accompanying a trade package, no longer contained the claim that “Ziratol is ten times more efficient than Carbolic Acid.” The older circular made the following statement:
“1. Strong Activity.—Compared with the bactericidal action of Carbolic Acid by the method of the Hygienic Laboratory of the Marine Hospital Service, Ziratol has the Carbolic Acid Coefficient of more than TEN, that is, Ziratol is TEN times more efficient than Carbolic Acid,—a strength unapproached by any other of its class. Ziratol in dilution of 1:1400 kills the Typhoid Bacillus in 21⁄2 minutes, thus proving that it is strongly active even in very weak solutions.”
The new advertising circular reads:
“1. Strong Activity—Extensive bacteriological investigations on many pathogenic organisms, conducted in the Lederle Laboratories of New York, prove conclusively the high bactericidal value of Ziratol in extremely dilute solutions. (A copy of the complete report will be mailed upon request.)”