March 13th, 1980. Geraldo Rivera for Eyewitness News explains that Chloride deficiency can lead to a form of starvation.
“We even went to their plant in …and tried to talk to the Director of Operations. As you see, he refused to talk to us…”
Shortly into the segment we hear from a mother who raised her child on the formulas in question, with the infant nearly perishing. Grisly images of the malformed baby are shown, and clips from Representative Al Gore’s questioning of the Syntex Corporation are heard.
After hearings led by Mr. Gore, dozens of lawsuits, and legislation resulting from the scandal, Syntex Corporation stopped selling baby formula in 1981.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.