Cancer Group: McDonald's Beef Pledge Should Go Further

[Guest guest]

http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-02-09.asp#anchor5

 

 

Cancer Group: McDonald's Beef Pledge Should Go Further

 

CHICAGO, Illinois, July 2, 2003 (ENS) - The decision by McDonald's last month to

require its suppliers to phase out animal growth promotion antibiotics used in

human medicine by 2004 was met with widespread support by environmental and

public health organizations, but some say there is evidence the fast food giant

should go a bit further.

 

The Global Policy on Antibiotics announced last month creates a set of standards

for McDonald's direct meat suppliers and encourages indirect suppliers to take

similar steps to eliminate growth promoting antibiotics and to reduce other

antibiotic usage.

By one recent estimate, more than 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the

United States are fed to healthy farm animals.

Based on the growing body of evidence, the American Medical Association and more

than 275 other groups have called for an end to the routine use of medically

important antibiotics in healthy food animals because humans who eat their meat

can develop resistance to the antibiotics.

But the initiative excludes hormonal growth promoters, despite concerns that

these hormones could be linked to reproductive cancers warns, the Cancer

Prevention Coalition.

The beef industry contends that the residues of these hormones found in beef

pose little or no threat to humans, but Dr. Samuel Epstein, chairman of the

cancer group, is not convinced.

Epstein says McDonalds should heed the findings of a scientific committee formed

in the wake of the European Union's attempt to ban hormonal beef imports in

1999.

That committee of nine independent experts, Epstein says, undertook a

comprehensive risk assessment of all growth promoting hormones and concluded in

1999 that the risk to consumers had been clearly established, and that safe

exposure levels could not be identified for any of these hormones.

The committee warned that exposure to even small traces in meat posed

carcinogenic, endocrine, and genetic risks, especially for young children

because of their " extremely low level " of production of sex hormones.

The EU went further by funding 17 comprehensive studies on hormone residues in

meat, and Epstein says all of these - most already published in peer reviewed

scientific journals - further document the carcinogenic, genetic, and other

risks of hormonal meat.

Epstein says McDonald's should further strengthen its Social Responsibility

campaign by extending concerns on the dangers of growth promoting agents, from

the antibiotic to the hormonal.

* * *

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

SBC DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!