Sinclair intended to expose the horrific conditions faced by immigrants as they tried to survive in Chicago's Meat-Packing District in his 1904 novel, The Jungle. While he did an admirable job of showing the unjust working, housing, and economic conditions in Packingtown, he did an even better job depicting the horrific conditions under which American meat was produced. His descriptions of dirty and unsightly additions to sausages and other meat products awakened politicians to the problem, including President Theodore Roosevelt. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Jungle is directly credited with helping pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906. Examples of how horrible Chicago's meat packing plants really were. The novel's main protagonist, Jurgis, saw men in the mustering hall with skin diseases. Men who used knives on accelerated assembly lines often lost fingers. The men carrying 100-pound chunks of meat had paralyzed backs. Where workers suffering from tuberculosis continually cough and spit blood on the floor. And right next to where the meat was processed, workers often used primitive toilets without access to soap and water to wash their hands. In some areas there were no toilets and workers occasionally urinated in a corner. Canteens were quite scarce at the time and often rare, so much so that workers ate where they worked. Following the novel, Jurgis suffered a series of harrowing misfortunes that began when he injured his foot on the assembly line. And the consequences of all this led to "no compensation for workers" in that period, as well as the employer not claiming responsibility for Jurgis's injury at work. Because of this, Jurgis's life fell apart, eventually losing his family, home and job. Do to the revolting nature of meat processing companies; The passage of the Meat Inspection Act cleared the way for Congress to pass a long-stalled law to regulate the sale of most other foods and drugs.