A study by John Hopkins University has shown that there is a significant amount of arsenic used when farm raising chicken. Arsenic is used to promote growth, treat disease, and improve meat pigmentation in chicken. However, arsenic is a known toxin and carcinogen. When farmers feed arsenicals to their chickens, it will stay in their muscles, which means that we will consume an unsafe amount of arsenic. This means that we have an increased chance of cancer, diarrhea, vomiting, hair loss, and convulsions, and heart disease.
Since arsenic poses a serious threat to human health, steps must be taken to resolve this issue. The FDA can to change their regulation, much like Europe has already done. On a more personal level, we can choose to avoid meat which has been raised by a company known for feeding arsenicals. Education can also help prevent health consequences. If we educate our friends and family on the harms of arsenic and its presence in chicken, companies and the FDA can take note and alter business practices/regulations.
Since arsenic poses a serious threat to human health, steps must be taken to resolve this issue. The FDA can to change their regulation, much like Europe has already done. On a more personal level, we can choose to avoid meat which has been raised by a company known for feeding arsenicals. Education can also help prevent health consequences. If we educate our friends and family on the harms of arsenic and its presence in chicken, companies and the FDA can take note and alter business practices/regulations.
Neil,
ReplyDeleteThe study you included by John Hopkins University was helpful and I agree that the U.S. should follow in Europe’s footsteps and ban arsenic use in chicken or at least educate the public on its dangers. Upon further research I found an article that was written in 2012 that was talking about a proposed and passed a bill in Maryland that would ban chicken containing arsenic. In the same article the author said that as early as the 1940’s they used an arsenic-based drug, roxarsone to help fight parasites in animals. Two big companies, Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms claimed that they have stopped adding arsenic to their chickens but there is evidence that does not support their claim. It starts to get scary when we learn what our food in the U.S. contains.
Neil,
ReplyDeleteThis was definately a very informative article. I did not know that arsenicals were banned in Europe but the more I researched the topic the more this made sense to me. I am actually writing a paper for my Chemistry class about Arsenic being a trace element in our body. That being said, trace means miniscule and barely traceable. Around 8 billion chickens are consumed each year by Americans. At this rate, this element will be much more apparent than a 'trace element.' I used this link to find data about our consumption.
Tristan M
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/faen/poultry%20facts.html
Neil,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! People should be educated about this problem. There is no reason why citizens of the United States should be eating a product that has a cancerous chemical within it. There is no excuse for this chemical to be put into the chicken feed on purpose. The FDA should really do something, but the sad part is that they already know! This article (http://intellihub.com/2013/07/21/fda-finally-admits-chicken-meat-contains-cancer-causing-arsenic/) contains information to back your information Neil and tells us that the FDA has told the American public that there is arsenic within our chicken. For years, the FDA denied this fact. Know that they have admitted to it, they are still not doing anything. By doing nothing it's saving more money for the government and the chicken product companies while putting our lives at risk. Why is everything always about money? What happened to keeping the citizens of the U.S. safe?