The West Side Spirit.  June 1(?) Through June 29, 1987. Page 10.

HEALTH.  

Hidden Poisons: Is Your Meat Safe?   By Judy Trupin

     When the average consumer goes to the grocery store to buy meat or milk, he or she knows that to look for: a fresh date on the milk carton and the seal of approval from the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture on the meat. At that point, one is assured that one has bought a safe product. Right? Maybe not. The meat and dairy products you buy may contain residues of drugs, chemicals and other toxic substances that were added to the animal’s feed, implanted in its skin, or sprayed on the animal.

     The drugs and other chemicals given to animals are of questionable safety. A congressional subcommittee has found that 90% of the over 20,000 drugs given to animals do not have FDA approval. The subcommittee stated that the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has been too lax about allowing the animal industry to use thousands of unapproved drugs and feed supplements. One FDA investigator visited 43 farms in lowa, and was able to purchase illegal drugs in all but three cases.

     In addition to using illicit drugs, some farmers use drugs in ways for which they were not intended. At times, drugs that were approved for one species are given to another, or given to animals in dosages far greater than those permitted by the FDA.

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     Even those drugs with FDA approval may not be safe.  Hormones have been administered to farm animals for over 30 years as a means of regulating ovulation cycles in cows, pacifying animals in the feedlot, and promoting weight gain. However, the practice of administering hormones to animals can be quite harmful to humans if levels of these drugs turn up in the meat. High levels of estrogen have been associated with several problems, most notably cancer.

     Some industry representatives, such as Dr. Howared Rigold, believe that if properly used, hormone administration to animals is quite safe. However, many other scientists disagree. Dr. Roy Hertz, a former director of the Endocrinology branch of the National Cancer Institute has said, “In general, it would seen that chronic elevation at any level above endogenous estrogen (that is, the amount the animal naturally produces) would qualify as a potential carcinogenic agent.”

     Children exposed to high levels of estrogen are especially at risk. In 1982, a Puerto Rican pediatrician, Dr. Saenz de Rodriguez, reported seeing one to two cases daily of children as young as one-year old with developed breasts and pubic hair, as well as eight-month-old babies with ovarian cysts.

     Dr. Saenz suspected that estrogen in food was the problem. The children’s symptoms abated when she took them off meat and milk products.

    The first synthetic hormone available in this country, DES, has now been banned because it is carcinogenic. However, new hormones have appeared, and many of these are also problematic. For example, Ralgro contains zeranol. Which R. Schocntal of the Royal Veterinary College in London found to cause tumors of the sex organs in rats that are exposed to it prenatal. Schocntal said, “It is regrettable that in the U.S. the long term effects of Fusarium mycotoxins (zearalenone) have not been adequately studied.”

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     Antibiotics are also routinely administered to animals. They are primarily used as a preventive against infection and to promote animal growth. Certainly, no one would deny the usefulness of these drugs in controlling once-debilitating disease. Unfortunately, some physicians have prescribed them to humans indiscriminately, for “everything from headaches to ingrown toenails,” according to Dr. Richard Novick, director of the Public Health Research Institute in New York. This has led to the development of resistant stains of bacteria. We now have strains of diseases which antibiotics once cured but which can no longer be cured by those drugs.

     In 1979, nearly all the poultry in this country, as well as 90% of pigs and 70% of cattle, received antibiotics in their feed, despite the fact that a 1978 WHO report had linked antibiotic overuse to “unnecessary suffering and lose of life” throughout the world. But according to some scientists, routine administration of antibiotics to animals is not necessary. Certainly, if farmers did not keep animals in such close quarters the need for antibiotics to curtail infection would be rapidly diminished. Other scientists are not convinced that antibiotics actually work as growth promoters. Dr. Richard Novick says, “I myself am far from convinced that these antibiotic additives are all that effective in promoting growth anyway. Basically, I think the formers have been sold a bill of goods and are squandering an extremely important resource. As far as I’m concerned the drug companies are responsible.”  

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     Pesticides, many of which are carcinogenic, are sprayed on farm animals as well as fed to them in their diet, and traces of these dangerous chemicals may appear in milk and meat products. Some of the insecticides are absorbed from the animal’s intestinal tract and then stored in the animal’s fat cells. This residue can show up in meat.

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     The use of chemicals in our meat supply is growing, despite the increasing awareness of harm these chemicals may cause. As one drug is banned another appears to replace it, often without proper testing. New chemicals to increase farm profits are invented every year. The industry is now testing such products as plastic hay and recycled human waste for animal feed.

     Given the farmers’ liberalism of dangerous chemicals and the FDA’s lax controls, consumers have no guarantee that the meat they buy is truly fit to eat. A heart conscious consumer has few choices: cither to opt for a non-meat diet or to only purchase meats that are specifically labeled as raised without the use of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs.

Judy Trupin is a health and nutrition counselor at the Center for Therapeutic Movement on West 9^th Street and is a free-lance writer.

Colored sentences are my thoughts, too. Eat no meat. Jt.