3 Million Melamine Tainted Chickens in Our Food Supply

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18405363/

The Food and Drug Adminstration said Tuesday that as many as 3 million chickens that may have been given contaminated feed containing melamine have already been eaten by consumers, according to NBC News.

Although the chickens, which came from 38 poultry farms in Indiana, have already made their way into the food supply, there appears to be minimal or no health risk to humans, the government said.

The Agriculture Department and the FDA said in a joint statement Monday that officials learned of the link between the chicken feed and tainted pet food as part of the investigation into imported rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten that have been found to contain the industrial chemical melamine and related compounds.

The affected poultry farms and breeder poultry farms fed the contaminated feed to poultry within days of receiving it, the agencies said. Other farms will probably be identified as having received tainted feed, they added.

[cassiepriam]

1. It kills pets, but no risk to humans???? Sure.

[crikkett]

2. woe to us who fed our animals meat to keep them safe.

and bless the poor creatures entrusted to our care.

[DawnIsis]

3. The FDA already said there has never been a study on melamine and humans so I guess

that's how they can claim there is no health risk. NO KNOWN HEALTH RISK that is.

[Kutjara]

4. At last, the Colonel's secret recipe is out in the open! n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. What's the concentration?

[pnwmom]

11. Among 3 million chickens, that's bound to vary.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. What, then, is the average concentration?

Or the maximum?

[pnwmom]

22. As far as I've heard, the FDA hasn't made any effort to determine that.

Have you heard otherwise?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

It's rather important.

[pnwmom]

27. The levels that killed the dogs and cats weren't considered

high enough to be a risk to their health. That's one reason the FDA at first thought that melamine wasn't the real problem.

And yet those levels obviously were toxic. More than half of the cats in the Menu Foods own research study died, not counting all the ones sickened all over the country.

My friend's 5 yr old cat only had a few pouches worth and it suffered kidney shut down and almost died. When my friend called and asked for them to pay for the vet bills (she had all the receipts), they said she needed to prove that it was the food that had made the cat sick.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

29. What were the levels in the cats and dogs?

How about a number?

[pnwmom]

31. I've never seen a number. All I heard was that melamine, at the levels

found in the pet food, had not been considered a risk until then. That is why at first they thought that melamine wasn't the agent causing the problem.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

33. Well then, if melamine's not the agent causing the problem.... n/t

[pnwmom]

39. It clearly is causing the problem. The newer results -- the animal

deaths in the Menu Foods own research -- shows that previous opinion about the risk of melamine is wrong.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

40. So then what were the levels?

[pnwmom]

41. Why do you keep asking me after I told you I've never seen them?

You're as capable of googling as I am.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

42. Because you keep referring to them.

The levels were low, that's why they didn't think it was melamine at first, then they took another look at the levels and said it was the melamine, now they're saying there's some level in chickens. I want to know what the levels are, because I prefer solid facts over rumor and fear-mongering. If somebody says we have to worry about a smoking gun in the form of 3 million Chickens of Mass Destruction that's 15 minutes away from killing thousands of Americans, I want support for that statement.

[pnwmom]

45. You're twisting my words.

I said nothing like that.

What I did say is that we will never know what health effects there may have been and that they are lying when they say there ARE none.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

51. Well, if somebody wants to know what the health effects are...

they better figure out the melamine concentration.

[pnwmom]

53. I agree.

Assuming that whatever data we have about health effects related to concentration is accurate.

[Richard Steele]

49. He's not really interested in the issue, you know.

Just sayin'.

[pnwmom]

6. Liars. There is no way to determine the health risks,

since they have never tested melamine on humans. It obviously has caused serious problems among animal subjects -- though the research wouldn't have predicted even that.

No one will ever know how many people -- especially small children, the elderly, and those with preexisting kidney conditions (including diabetics and others) -- had some damage to their kidneys from this contaminant.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. The LD50 for melamine's ~3000 mg/kg

They haven't tested melamine on humans, no.

Thank goodness for animal experimentation though.

[pnwmom]

35. Yes, we've just had a giant uncontrolled experiment on animals.

And it was a dismal failure, that showed us nothing except that melamine is more dangerous to mammals than people had thought.

[Horse with no Name]

7. And the people that died were probably elderly, ill, immunocompromised

and their deaths were blamed on such. Nobody could have ever imagined the contamination of the food supply while the entities that were entrusted to keep us safe were being dismantled...

[pnwmom]

21. Kidney disease is often a long process. More likely they just got somewhat

sicker, and who would notice?

[Horse with no Name]

28. Or the ones who already had kidney disease died of kidney failure

as you said, who would notice?

[central scrutinizer]

8. Man, I love globalization

Thanks a lot, Bill Clinton, for ramming NAFTA and GATT down our throats.

[Breeze54]

9. Gheesh!

Good thing the price of chicken is so high this week, I didn't buy any.
But what about last week? :puke:

[electron_blue]

14. yes, last week, last month, last year. It's apparently pretty widespread

[Lurking Dem]

10. There goes the make-your-own pet food argument.

[magellan]

16. Yeah, except what the hell do we feed our pets NOW?

I'm not happy with the idea of feeding them any processed foods at this point, and now chicken's out too. Guess it's back to baby food and rice.

[crikkett]

18. go organic. you never know what's in baby food.

[pnwmom]

24. The Bush administration wants to basically eliminate organic

foods, too. By watering down the standards till they're meaningless.

[Lurking Dem]

47. Are you saying you refuse to buy

the new and improved Organic Velveeta?

:silly:

[crikkett]

48. then we will fight it. Lame Duck * admin doesn't have time does it?

I don't think * will even finish his term.

God Bless President Pelosi. May it be so.

[MannyGoldstein]

15. Excellent! Solves The Unemployment Problem

'Free' trade is a miraculous thing - sure US jobs are obliterated. However, since many will die from tainted food, it will keep the unemployment figures from getting too high.

Make sure, in the next election, that you thank the politicians who voted for permanent most-favored-nation trading status with China.

[StarryNite]

17. sonofabitch!

WTF are we supposed to eat?!

[LisaM]

19. Our dogs eat a chicken-based food

they have not had problems at all yet - but how do I know where the chicken in the pet food comes from?

I absolutely will not buy anything (food or not) that is labelled "Made in China". This is a disgrace.

[kath]

32. The problem is, there is usually no labeling - NO way of knowing where the ingredients in your food

come from, or the food itself. Some of the produce in my supermarket is labeled as to where it was grown, but the majority is not.

we are so screwn...

[Tyler Durden]

50. Go with WELLNESS Venison and Brown Rice.

Any rice protein in that comes from domestic brown rice, and I don't see any deer having the rice with dinner.

My allergic little girl Corgi does fine on it.

[Ilsa]

20. Yeah, sure it's safe. Until the first healthy person

suddenly dies from kidney disease. Or whatever this will do to humans.

[pnwmom]

23. Kidney disease is rarely so sudden in a healthy person.

Especially in one who is being very slowly poisoned.

[Ilsa]

46. Yeah, I know, they'd be symptomatic. I was just thinking about all the

dead cats with kidney problems. How we are being poisoned enrages me to the point I can't think clearly.

[EstimatedProphet]

25. It's 2,999,999 now

We had chicken for dinner.

[NightWatcher]

26. there's soon going to be nothing to eat.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

30. So my kidney hurting me 2 nights ago after eating

whole wheat pancakes was just a coincidence? G'Damned fucking assholes are letting the corporations poison us!

[Sapere aude]

34. Not in my food supply, I don't eat that shit.

[pnwmom]

38. Unless you eat no meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, and NO processed foods,

(including things like margarine and veggie processed foods), then you do eat that shit.

[Catherine Vincent]

36. It's to a point that nothing is safe to eat.

:(

[MindPilot]

37. Makes me wonder if we just found the cause for the increase in

autism.

[133724]

43. WTF I just had KFC.....n/t

[DawgHouse]

44. Look on the bright side! KFC now has no trans fats!!

[Horse with no Name]

52. AND they probably ONLY took out the trans-fat because

it didn't mix well with the tainted chicken.

[mzmolly]

54. Woo hoo! Free Trade! Yee Haw! De-regulation!

:puke:

[Shallah Kali]

55. The Melamine Combines Nicely with the Arsenic they Feed the Chickens! YUM!

Arsenic In Chicken Feed May Pose Health Risks To Humans
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409115746.htm

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.

Roxarsone, the most common arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, is used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve pigmentation of chicken meat. In its original form, roxarsone is relatively benign. But under certain anaerobic conditions, within live chickens and on farm land, the compound is converted into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic. Arsenic has been linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and colon cancer, while low-level exposures can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes, the article notes.

Use of roxarsone has become a topic of increasing controversy. A growing number of food suppliers have stopped using the compound, including the nation's largest poultry producer, Tyson Foods, according to the article. Still, about 70 percent of the 9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the U.S. are fed a diet containing roxarsone, the article points out.

Study Has Many Clucking about Elevated Levels of Arsenic Found in Chicken
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/arsenic_in_chicken_meat.html

After reviewing 5,000 chicken samples, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service last year discovered alarmingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the flesh of broiler chickens, those chickens raised for meat.1 These government researchers found that the amount of arsenic in the chicken samples greatly exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's upper safety limit of arsenic allowed in drinking water. In fact, the amount of arsenic found in the chicken was six to nine times that allowed by the EPA.

snip

The researchers, however, found not only elevated levels of organic arsenic in chicken meat, they found elevated levels of the highly toxic inorganic form typically used only in insecticides and weed killers.11 And cooking the muscles of these animals may create additional toxic arsenic by-products.12

Inorganic arsenic is considered one of the prominent environmental causes of cancer mortality in the world.13 Arsenic is a human carcinogen linked to liver, lung, skin, kidney, bladder, and prostate cancers. It can also cause neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune system abnormalities. Diabetes has also been linked to arsenic exposure.14

Arsenic's use in chicken feed troubles health advocates
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.arsenic10mar10,1,6765502,print.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the feed additive since 1944, saying there is no evidence it threatens the public's health. But the European Union has refused to allow the use of Roxarsone, saying there is no proof that even trace amounts of arsenic in food are safe.

snip

But the study by Duquesne University biologist John F. Stolz found that bacteria in chicken manure quickly transforms the safer variety of arsenic found in Roxarsone into the dangerous, inorganic variety.

Because of these health risks, Stolz said, poultry companies should reconsider their use of Roxarsone as a feed additive. About 70 percent of the 8.2 billion broiler chickens produced in the U.S. in 2000 were fed Roxarsone, according to the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"Do we care if farmers are getting exposed to arsenic? I do," said Stolz, whose study was published in the journal in January. "If it were essential in raising chickens, that would be one thing. But it's not. There are a number of poultry companies that are successfully raising chickens without it."

[leftofthedial]

56. fucking repuke capitalist assholes

are killing the planet and everyone on it.

what? global warming was too slow.

they'll be happy when the global population is reduced to about 200 million virtual slaves for the 1000 or so oligarchical families.

[Shallah Kali]

57. The Melamine Combines Nicely with the Arsenic they Feed the Chickens! YUM YUM YUM!

Arsenic In Chicken Feed May Pose Health Risks To Humans
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409115746.htm

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.

Roxarsone, the most common arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed, is used to promote growth, kill parasites and improve pigmentation of chicken meat. In its original form, roxarsone is relatively benign. But under certain anaerobic conditions, within live chickens and on farm land, the compound is converted into more toxic forms of inorganic arsenic. Arsenic has been linked to bladder, lung, skin, kidney and colon cancer, while low-level exposures can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes, the article notes.

Use of roxarsone has become a topic of increasing controversy. A growing number of food suppliers have stopped using the compound, including the nation's largest poultry producer, Tyson Foods, according to the article. Still, about 70 percent of the 9 billion broiler chickens produced annually in the U.S. are fed a diet containing roxarsone, the article points out.

Study Has Many Clucking about Elevated Levels of Arsenic Found in Chicken
http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/arsenic_in_chicken_meat.html

After reviewing 5,000 chicken samples, researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service last year discovered alarmingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the flesh of broiler chickens, those chickens raised for meat.1 These government researchers found that the amount of arsenic in the chicken samples greatly exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's upper safety limit of arsenic allowed in drinking water. In fact, the amount of arsenic found in the chicken was six to nine times that allowed by the EPA.

snip

The researchers, however, found not only elevated levels of organic arsenic in chicken meat, they found elevated levels of the highly toxic inorganic form typically used only in insecticides and weed killers.11 And cooking the muscles of these animals may create additional toxic arsenic by-products.12

Inorganic arsenic is considered one of the prominent environmental causes of cancer mortality in the world.13 Arsenic is a human carcinogen linked to liver, lung, skin, kidney, bladder, and prostate cancers. It can also cause neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune system abnormalities. Diabetes has also been linked to arsenic exposure.14

Arsenic's use in chicken feed troubles health advocates
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.arsenic10mar10,1,6765502,print.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the feed additive since 1944, saying there is no evidence it threatens the public's health. But the European Union has refused to allow the use of Roxarsone, saying there is no proof that even trace amounts of arsenic in food are safe.

snip

But the study by Duquesne University biologist John F. Stolz found that bacteria in chicken manure quickly transforms the safer variety of arsenic found in Roxarsone into the dangerous, inorganic variety.

Because of these health risks, Stolz said, poultry companies should reconsider their use of Roxarsone as a feed additive. About 70 percent of the 8.2 billion broiler chickens produced in the U.S. in 2000 were fed Roxarsone, according to the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"Do we care if farmers are getting exposed to arsenic? I do," said Stolz, whose study was published in the journal in January. "If it were essential in raising chickens, that would be one thing. But it's not. There are a number of poultry companies that are successfully raising chickens without it."