U.S. National Institutes of Health

Mexicans wait to be bathed and deloused at the El Paso Disinfection Station at International Bridge, Records of the Public Health Service, 1917

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

All workers who commuted daily from Juarez, Mexico to El Paso, Texas were forced to strip naked, bathe, and then be sprayed with gasoline and other pesticides to kill lice.

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