ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2007) — Pets may not be the only organisms endangered by some food additives. An arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed may pose health risks to humans who eat meat from chickens that are raised on the feed, according to an article in the April 9 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society.
Millions of pounds of roxarsone are mixed in chicken feed every year. The poultry industry, which makes more money for fatter chickens, has kept insisting that none of the arsenic stays in the chicken and therefore cannot be dangerous to humans. But recent studies have shown that a percentage of this arsenic stays in the chicken tissue and the rest is excreted in urine and chicken litter. Consumers cannot taste the arsenic as it is odourless and flavorless.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency , just 10 ppb ( parts per billion ) in tap water raises the percentage of cancer in people to one in 2000. But the arsenic allowed in chicken is between 500 and 2000 ppb per billion and this standard , set in 1945 has still not been revised!
Average chicken eaters may ingest 21 to 31 µg of arsenic everyday, which is much higher than the tolerable daily intake recommended by the World Health Organization.
There are two types of arsenic : organic and inorganic. Organic arsenic is less harmful directly. However, it turns inorganic in the presence of bacteria and becomes a killer. The chicken industry insists that roxarsone contains organic arsenic. However studies done by the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering in 2006 and by Partha Basu of the University of Duquesne University show that roxarsone arsenic becomes inorganic in less than 10 days. This is extremely dangerous , not just to the chicken eater who eats the inorganic arsenic in the bird meat but to everyone around. The magnitude of the health hazard can easily be gauged from the fact that , roxarsone, that is put in feed can degrade by mold and moisture into inorganic arsenic called trimethylarsine which is 2000 times more toxic than carbon monoxide. A study in Environmental Health Perspectives in 2006 say that a typical chicken eating adult may ingest 3.62 to 5.24 micrograms of inorganic arsenic daily .
Not only is Roxarsone Arsenic dangerous to humans ta ht consume chickens. Much of the chicken manure contains Arsenic and is then often used as fertilizer for other agricultural products. What is making me so mad is that the government knows about the use of this and other toxic chemicals in the raising of animals, but yet they do nothing to stop it. Eating meat for decades has in my opinion be the major contributor of many diseases. We are being poisoned and we don't seem to want to know. Anyone who knows half of the truth would in no way continue feeding their children animals products. It's just like giving them a poison pill every day and who would do that? Just because it's a chicken, or a steak or a hot dog does not mean it is actually food. In my opinion the lies and the secrets that have been kept about what is in processes food, and what is in meat is criminal and those responsible should be held accountable.
My only explanation why it is all kept from the masses is that if it all came out including studies that show the connection to many diseases, it would lead to loss of billions of dollars in business and jobs. The billion dollar lobbyist probably pay plenty to Washington to keep it all under wraps.
POULTRY INDUSTRY: Prairie Grove Suit Focuses on Roxarsone Link
January 4, 2004
It was a gut-wrenching sight, watching a group of Prairie Grove residents take the stage and reveal the most painful experiences of their lives. They spoke of dead children, rare cancers and devastated families.
Lawyers Hunter Lundy and Clayton Davis helped orchestrate the Dec. 16 news conference in Fayetteville, hoping to drive home the point that the poultry industry is to blame for much of the illness in Prairie Grove. The same day, they filed a lawsuit on behalf of 12 Prairie Grove residents against poultry companies in Northwest Arkansas.
The lawsuit will pivot on an obscure chemical called Roxarsone, a feed-additive for chickens. Lawyers and their experts say Roxarsone is causing cancer cases in Prairie Grove, including those of defendants in the case.
If the allegations are affirmed, they could have a farranging impact on the poultry industry, which commonly uses Roxarsone. John Baker, a Fayetteville lawyer working on the lawsuit, said other communities are experiencing the same problems as Prairie Grove, but haven’t filed lawsuits.
Rod O’Connor, a former chemistry professor at Texas A&M University who was hired by Lundy and Davis, said Roxarsone is the crucial link between cancer cases in Prairie Grove and chicken litter spread around the town of 2,540 people. "Now we’ve actually got the scientific proof," O’Connor said. He tested dozens of homes in Prairie Grove and found traces of Roxarsone in more than 95 percent of them, he said. That Roxarsone degrades into arsenic, he alleges, and causes cancer. His testing found elevated levels of arsenic in the homes as well, he said.
9 comments:
Hunter Lundy is a HERO of HEROS! We need more attorneys who will defend the defenseless! He stands up for those who cannot stand! Shame on Tyson chicken! Tyson chicken is KILLING children! Tyson chicken needs to take responsibility for their actions. We need to stop tyson chicken!
Tyson Chicken is Chicken! They are killing kids! I have been reading about this case. I pray Hunter Lundy will stiop Tyson Chicken DEAD! Tell everyone on your Facebook and Myspace NOT to buy Tyson Chicken! Go Hunter Lundy!
Karen...I agree! Tyson chicken MUST be stopped! Tyson chicken is killing children! As a mother I will never buy Tyson chicken again.I am an active mother in the ciommunity and I am hosting a special event to warn parents of the reckless actions of Tyson Chicken.
The hundreds of tons of chicken litter produced by the poultry industry’s chicken farms is leading to high rates of disease and death, according to recently completed research by an environmental team of experts in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. The research was conducted for Lundy & Davis law firm, who has filed a lawsuit against the poultry industry of Northwest Arkansas on behalf of a group of clients suffering from serious health conditions they say are the direct result of exposure to toxic contaminants found in chicken litter. Named defendants in the case include Tyson, Simmons Foods, George’s Farms, Cargill, Peterson Farms and Cal-Maine Farms. Results of the research report were presented will be presented at a news conference at 10 am on Tuesday, January 14 at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.
According to attorneys Hunter Lundy and Clayton Davis, their firm became involved in the case at the request of a several residents in Prairie Grove who had already reported their concerns about the number of cancer cases in their community to government agencies. “Residents of Prairie Grove have complained for years about the odor and clouds of dust that are emitted from the chicken farms and the spreading of the chicken litter,” said Lundy. “We now know that they have much more than an offensive odor to be concerned about.”
Lundy says their environmental and health surveys have found extremely alarming levels of toxic contamination and disease incidence in Prairie Grove, all of which can be directly linked back to the poultry industry’s negligent management and disposal of chicken litter. “Decades of relentless growth in the quest for ever-increasing profits have resulted in more than an 80 percent increase in the number of chicken houses in Washington County over the last decade. For years, chicken litter generated on these farms has been sold and distributed as fertilizer in a three to five-mile radius within the community. As the once backyard chicken shacks have grown into factory farms, the sheer volume of waste, and the toxic chemicals it contains, has become overwhelming and hazardous — and the people in charge of the poultry industry know this is true,” states Lundy.
“I live here and I know people who are sick,” says Prairie Grove attorney John Baker, who is also representing the residents in the lawsuit. “The disease rates we have here are staggering for a community this size. Our town is paying a tragically high price for the poultry industry’s profits.” Lundy says the cancer rates found are as much as 50 times higher than the national average. Medical personnel at Children’s Hospital in Little Rock can attest to the high rate of childhood cancers that occur in Northwest Arkansas. They say this area led to the need for their pediatric oncology program. From the 146 health surveys completed and analyzed by experts, a wide range of health problems were reported, including cancer, auto-immune diseases, and skin disorders. Forty-three people reported some form of cancer, including three cases of leukemia in just one neighborhood, five cases of liver cancer, including an eight-month-old baby.
Researchers say this liver cancer rate is an extreme anomaly, considering that the national rate of liver cancer is one in 10,000. In addition, five cases of testicular cancer were reported and sixty respondents had some form of skin disorder. “As our data was gathered, we began looking at health records of people who had died from some of these same types of disease, and what we found further supported our data,” added Baker.
According to the researchers, all of these conditions can be linked directly to the chicken litter and chicken compost from the chicken farms in the area. Arsenic, bacteria and fungus were identified as the main sources of the health problems experienced by residents of Prairie Grove.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, organic arsenic compounds are extensively added to poultry feed to enhance growth. “This decreases the time it takes for a chick to mature, increasing production for the farms and profits for the poultry company,” says Lundy. The most common arsenical poultry feed is Roxarsone. “By design, most of the arsenic, which is number one on the EPAs toxic substance list, is excreted in the manure of the chickens. Our research has found that pound per pound, the amount of waste, and therefore the amount of arsenic spread throughout the community, is nearly identical to the amount of Roxarsone fed to the chickens. Basically, what goes into the chickens to increase the company’s production and profits, is being spread in the community where it causes disease and death.”
The contamination process occurs through the air as the waste breaks down, releasing the arsenic and bacteria into the air. The wind then carries these airborne toxic substances throughout the community, according to researchers, where it is inhaled by the citizens. Researchers took dust and air duct samples from 22 residences and area businesses in Prairie Grove, including four schools located next to farms where chicken litter is spread. “The levels of toxic substances we found was off any chart you could find for safe indications of these contaminants, and what we found in our sampling is just a snapshot measurement of what these people were being exposed to at that time. Even more alarming is thinking about what these residents have been exposed to over the years in this community,” says Baker.
Lundy says the suit was filed against the poultry companies because they control every aspect of the operation of the chicken farms, including the ingredients in the chicken feed. “Prairie Grove is not an isolated incident. The chemicals in the litter have impacted the environment and now they are poisoning people. The spreading of chicken litter has been banned in some areas of the country, but this industry-wide problem has gone unchecked for too long in many other areas like Prairie Grove,” says Lundy. “People are sick and dying and these companies have known about the health risks they are creating for years. Even worse than doing nothing, they have made the situation worse and more hazardous by expanding their production farms. By generating such huge volumes of waste in an effort to increase production, and by further increasing their profits by distributing the litter as fertilizer in the surrounding area, this industry is literally turning the communities in which they operate into toxic dumps. Now that we have research that clearly illustrates the gravity of the situation, we have an ethical obligation to warn the public that if they live in close proximity to a farm where chicken litter is spread, they are at great risk for exposure to deadly substances.”
Ruth Ann Wisener, Tyson’s assistant vice president and senior litigation counsel needs to have a moral conscience. How can she defend the murderous company called Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods is killing children! Ruth is NO match for Hunter Lundy! Hunter Lundy has the truth on his side. Ruth Ann Wiseness has the blood of children on her hands!
I am glad to see this BLOG! We need to ALL do what we can to stop Tyson for doing what they are doing! Tyson Foods is an enemy of families! Tyson Foods puts profits over lives! How much is a child worth! Tyson knows that they are killing children and are doing nothing about it! I am praying that Tyson Foods goes out of business! we need to ban buying food from Tyson foods. Call your local talk show and complain! I am! I will! God bless Hunter Lundy!
Please pray for Prairie Grove! Tyson Foods is killing the citizens of Prairie Grove! Children are dieing in Prairie Grove. Tyson Foods should go to jail! Tyson Foods puts profit over principle! Tyson Foods has no integrity or moral conscience.
STOP TYSON FOODS NOW!
Please post your comments and tell all your friends to post here.
BAN TYSON FOODS! DO NOT BUY TYSON FOODS!
Heck you guys! I did not know about this! I work at a grocery store that sells Tyson Foods. I know one of the reps! I will support your cause! I have heard bad things about the company and their products. I have never been to Prairie Grove but I support them! I will do what I can do!
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