 These factors led to the medical community developing a response to both unintentional and intentional poisonings.In Europe in the late 1940s special toxicology wards were set up; initial wards were started in Copenhagen and Budapest, and the Netherlands began a poison information service.In the United States during the 1930s, Louis Gdalman, a pharmacist knowledgeable in the chemistry of harmful substances, set up a poison information service at St. Luke's Hospital (Chicago, Illinois).