A-Infos (en) New Challenges on the Safety of U.S. Meat

["Lyn Gerry" <redlyn@loop.com>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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Subject: New Challenges on the Safety of U.S. Meat
Date: 5 Feb 1998
From: THots8421@aol.com 

New Challenges on the Safety of U.S. Meat: Oprah Right for Other Reasons, Says
Professor of Environmental Medicine at University of Illinois School of Public
Health

CHICAGO, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The following was released today by Samuel S.
Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois
School of Public Health:

 The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of the 1989 European ban on
the use of sex hormones for growth promotion of cattle in feedlots prior to
slaughter.  While subject to further assessment before it can be made
permanent, this ruling is a major victory for European consumers.  It is also
a major defeat for the United States and Canada which challenged the European
ban claiming that it was "protectionist," costing over $100 million a year in
lost exports, and that it reflected "consumerism versus science."  The WTO
ruling also raises serious concerns on the safety of U.S. meat, recently
questioned on different grounds by Oprah Winfrey, based on the following
considerations:

 *  Confidential industry reports to the FDA, obtained under the Freedom of  
Information Act, reveal high residues of natural and synthetic sex  
hormones in meat products even under ideal test conditions.  This is  
contrary to repeated and explicit assurances by the FDA and USDA.

*  Following legal implantation in the ear of steers of Synovex-S, a  
combination of estradiol and progesterone, estradiol levels in meat  
products ranged up to 20-fold in excess of the normal.  Based on  
conservative estimates, the amount of estradiol in two hamburgers  
eaten by an 8-year-old boy could increase his hormone levels by 10%.

*  Much higher hormone residues are found in meat products following  
illegal implantation in cattle muscle which is commonplace in U.S.
feedlots.  The WTO ruled that such abuse alone would justify the  
European ban.

*  Contrary to repeated and explicit assurances by the FDA and USDA, none  
of the approximately 130 million U.S. livestock slaughtered annually  
are tested for residues of cancer-causing and gene-damaging estradiol  
or any related sex hormones.  This misrepresentation has been confirmed  
by European Commission inspectors, in a November 1997 survey of U.S.
control programs, who reported that there was no monitoring for  
residues of sex hormones nor for illegal animal drugs, including  
antibiotics, and that U.S. residue monitoring was totally inadequate to  
meet European standards.

*  Repeated assurances on the safety of hormonal meat by two World Health  
Organization bodies, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the  
Codex Alimentarius Commission (FAO/CODEX), reflect minimal expertise in  
public health, high representation of senior FDA and USDA officials and  
industry consultants, reliance on unpublished industry and outdated  
scientific information, and conflicts of interest.  Paradoxically, the  
same Codex Commission which approved hormonal meat, explicitly warned  
over a decade ago that baby meat foods "shall be free from residues of  
hormones."

*  The endocrine-disruptive effects of estrogenic pesticides and other  
industrial food contaminants, known as xenoestrogens, are now under  
intensive investigation by U.S. regulatory and health agencies.  But  
contamination of meat with residues of the thousands-fold more potent  
estradiol remains ignored.

*  Lifelong exposure to high residues of natural and synthetic sex  
hormones in meat products poses serious risks of breast and other  
reproductive cancers, whose incidence in the U.S. has sharply escalated  
since 1950 -- 55% for breast cancer, 120% for testicular cancer, and  
230% for prostate cancer.  Those residues have also been incriminated  
in increasing trends of precocious sexual development.

Commenting on these facts, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental
Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago, School of Public Health,
stated: "The European ban on hormonal meat should serve as a long- overdue
wake-up call for U.S. consumers to demand an immediate ban on hormone use or,
minimally, the explicit labeling of hormonal meat products.  It should also
lead to a congressional investigation of the FDA and USDA for gross regulatory
abdication besides suppression of information vital to consumer health.  The
dangers of U.S. hormonal meat can no longer be ignored."

SOURCE  Cancer Prevention Coalition  



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