ALDF ANIMAL LAW SYMPOSIUM MARCH 2015

Human Health Impacts of Industrial Animal

Agriculture

Leslie A. Brueckner, Senior Attorney

Human Health Risks?

Industrial Animal Agriculture

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

Slaughterhouses Processing Plants

Karma in Action

FACTS

I. Toxic Food

II. Toxic Workplaces

III. Toxic Communities IV. Toxic World

I. Toxic Food:

John Hopkins 2008 Annual Review of Public Health

Concentrated animal feeding operations are comparable to poorly run hospitals, where everyone is given antibiotics, patients lie in unchanged beds, hygiene is nonexistent, infections and re-infections are rife, waste is thrown out the window, and visitors enter and leave at will.

Food Poisoning:

The CDC estimates that contaminated meat-and poultry-related infections make up to 3 million people sick each year, killing at least 1,000 figures that are probably underreported.

Why? The Horrible Truth

Crammed into tight containment areas in massive numbers, factory farmed animals often become caked with their own feces.

Source: The CAFO Reader

Slaughterhouse and Processing Practices

The CAFO Reader:

Modern slaughterhouse practices, including their incessant increases in speed, drive for profit, and huge scale have resulted in contamination and massive meat recalls.

Health Risks of Animal Drugs

A. Antibiotics

B. Beta Agonists

C. Steroid Hormones

D. Arsenicals

A. THE RISE OF THE SUPERBUGS:

Non-therapeutic animal agriculture use (drugs given to animals even when they are not sick) accounts for 70-80 percent of total antibiotic consumption in the United States.

World Health Organization

Without urgent action, we are heading for a post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can once again kill.

More from the WHO:

The problem is so serious that it threatens the achievement of modern medicine. A post antibiotic erain which common infections and minor injuries can killfar from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st-century.

What does the meat industry say?

When used judiciously, antibiotics are part of a farmers and veterinarians toolbox to maintain animal health. The vast majority of antibiotics are used either in people, or in animals, but not both.

Beyond antibiotics ....

B. Beta-Agonists

Beta-agonists are a widely used in feed additive in U.S. meat production.

Used to accelerate weight gain and promote feed efficiency, and leanness

RACTOPOMINE [image courtesy of Center for Food Safety]

How does it work?

mimics stress hormones, increasing heart rate and relaxing blood vessels.

Linked to cardiovascular stress, tremors, increased aggression, hyperactivity,and acute toxiciy.

In other words

It makes animals extremely sick, crazy, and often kills them out right.

Ractopamine impacts on Animals:

Ractopamine also increases numbers of downer or lame animals, associated with a complete inability to walk, broken limbs, and death.

How do Beta Agonists affect humans?

We dont know for sure. So far only one human study has been conducted thus far.

Even though the study had an very small sample size of only 6 men, one was removed from the study when he began experiencing an abnormally rapid heart rate

But we do know this:

Studies of rhesus monkeys found that ractopamine caused elevated heart rates that persisted 16 hours after dosing.

And guess what?

Ractopamine is banned from food production in at least 160 countries due to its suspected health effects.

Only the US and 25 other major meat-producing nations allow its use.

What about the FDA?

See no evil, hear no evil

As with the vast majority of animal drugs used in the US industrial meat system, FDAs approval for ractopomine relied primarily on studies conducted by the drug maker, Elanco. Many of the studies focused not on human health or animal welfare impacts, but on the most economical rates of administration to raise meat products more quickly.

Source: Center for Food Safety Ractopamine Fact Sheet. Lean Meat = Mean Meat.

C. Steroid Hormones

Use in Animals: to increase animal growth rates and the leanness of the meat. Also, cows in the dairy industry can be given growth hormones to increase milk production.

Impacts on Humans?

There is clear evidence that hormones originating outside the body can interfere with our own hormone function.

From American Public Health Association

Growth Hormones cont....

The six growth hormones commonly used by the US dairy industry have been shown to significantly increase the risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer in beef consumers.

Source: Farm Sanctuary

For Girls...

Central precocious puberty

Isolated breast development in girls before the age of eight, with no other clinical signs of sexual maturation.

For Boys ...?

A 2007 study found that sperm concentration of male children was inversely related to the mothers self-reported beef consumption during pregnancythe more beef consumed, the lower the sperm concentration.

What do other countries do?

Responding to the lack of certainty, the EU has banned all hormones in beef, and Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the EU have banned rBGH.

Source: Web MD

The American Approach?

From Web MD:

No major studies are under way in the U.S. to evaluate the safety of hormones in meat and milk.

D. Arsenic.

First approved for use in animal feed in the United States in the 1940s.

Why? promote weight gain and improve feed efficiency.

Until recently, use was pervasive: an estimated 70% of US chickens were fed arsenic-containing compounds in 2002.

Human health effects:

Long-term exposure associated with hyper pigmented skin, vessel disease, and a heightened risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes.

Chronic arsenic exposure in higher-level ranges associated with skin cancer, respiratory cancers, bladder cancer, hypertensive heart disease, etc.

The European approach?

Arsenic has never been approved for use in animal feed in the European Union, and is listed in the European commissions regulation on undesirable contaminants in animal feed.

The American approach?

You guessed it ...

FDA Partial Response:

In 2013, nearly 4 years after the Center for Food Safety sued the FDA for failing to respond to its petition to withdraw arsenic-laced feed given to chickens, turkeys, and pigs, the FDA finally responded by agreeing to withdraw three of the four arsenicals on the market

Caveat:

Actually, the FDA banned these drugs after the companies that make them decided to voluntarily withdraw them from FDA approval

Meanwhile, though, the fourth drug, Nitarsone, is still in the feed supply.

In other words, theres still arsenic in your chicken.

Fiddling, Fiddling...

FDAs last official statement on the drug was in Sept. 2013, when it said that it was still investigating and evaluating its potential dangers.

Bottom Line:

If you are what you eat, then you could be in a whole lot of trouble if youre eating factory farmed meat and dairy.

The Grassy Knoll What the hell is going on anyway?

Ten of the Biggest Lobbies in Washington --- Businesspundit.com

1. Tech 2. Mining 3. Defense 4. Agribusiness 5. Big Oil 6. The Financial Lobby 7. Big Pharma 8. AARP 9. The Pro-Israel Lobby 10. The NRA

Big Ag and Big Pharma

Drug companies enjoy more power and influence in America than with any other government in the world.

Agribusiness lobbyists spent upward of $150 million each year on campaigns, and legislation.

II. Toxic Workplaces

Slaughterhouses

Poultry Processing Plants

GAO: The Most Dangerous Industry in the United States: Workers in the meat industry make an average of $23,000 a year, work 10+ hours a day, are pushed so hard they often defecate in their pants to avoid slowing down and suffer repetitive motion injury rates 30 times the national average.

Source: Lucas Spangher, The Overlooked Plight of Factory Farm Workers.

Slaughterhouse Workers

Counties with slaughterhouses have four times the national average of violent arrest, with significantly higher rates of alcoholism, domestic abuse, child abuse and suicide.

Source: http://www.animalstudies.msu.edu/Slaughterhouses_and_Increased_Crime_Rates.pdf

1. Traumatic Injuries

Running With Scissors

While working at breakneck speed, slaughterhouse employees handle and are surrounded by knives, saws, hooks, bolt guns, scalding liquids, and all the large machinery common to assembly line industrial production.

2. Chronic Injuries

Injury rates

[M]usculoskeletal disorders are of particular concern among workers in the meat packing and poultry processing industries.... More than five times the national average for all U.S. industries.

Source: OSHA Letter dated 2/25/2105:

3. Disease Exposure

GAO Report

CAFO and slaughterhouse workers are surrounded by huge numbers of living and dead animals. They are the front line of exposure to the superbugs incubated in these environments.

Contact with different bacteria can cause fever, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, and kidney damage.

4. Dangerous Emissions

Dont Breathe the Air

As line speeds increase, more and more workers exposed to chemicals such as ammonia, chlorine, phosphoric acid, and sodium hydroxide.

GAO report continued For example, workers have died from being overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas and from drowning when they entered manure waste pits or unknowingly worked near manure waste lagoons without taking the proper precautions . . . ..

No Way Out:

38% of all factory farm workers are from outside the US and have undocumented status.

U.S. Government Response?

OSHA denial of petition for

workspeed standard 2/25/2015

The agency is aware of the serious safety and health hazards facing meat and poultry workers

The agency recognizes that the incidence of occupational illness cases, including musculoskeletal disorders, reported in the poultry industry in 2011 and 2012 [is] more than five times the average for all US industries

OSHA denial continued

And that the incidence of repetitive stress injuries in the meat packing industry was almost 10 times the private sector average

But concludes that the agencys limited resources do not allow for a comprehensive analysis and rulemaking effort.

In Other Words

Yes! Theres a problem. No! We cant do anything about it.

-OSHA

What About the USDA?

The USDAs regs are merely designed to guard against contamination, not protect workers.

Meanwhile, USDA recently proposed a new regulation that would have actually allowed poultry companies to increase the speed of the processing line from a maximum of 140 births per minute to 175.

The USDA ultimately backed down on the line-speed increase, but it dramatically reduced the number of inspectors from processing lines, making things worse for workers and increasing the risks of food safety.

III. Toxic Communities

North Carolina Hog Waste Lagoon

The Worst Neighbor Ever

Factory farms make awful neighbors. Ask anyone whos endured the nauseating stench of a manure lagoon constructed right beside her home. When a factory farm moves in, the surrounding community deteriorates, the local economy stagnates, property values plummet, and the oppressive odor permeates everything: furniture, carpets, clothes, drapes, blankets, beds... SOURCE: Sustainable Table

Odor

Not just a quality-of-life issue: according to one study, research participants exposed to simulated CAFO emissions for just one hour were 4.1 times more likely to develop headaches, 6.1 times more likely to report eye irritation, and 7.8 times more likely to report nausea than those who breathed clean air.

Its not just about the smell: CAFOs produce a host of major air

pollutants, including:

Hydrogen sulfide: linked to throat irritation, nausea, coughing, headache, dizziness, and blistering of lips.

Ammonia: linked to shortness of breath, and irritation of the eyes, throat, respiratory system, sinuses, and skin.

Particulate matter fecal matter, feed materials, bacteria, fungi, etc. Linked to persistent respiratory symptoms and a decline in lung function.

What result?

studies have discovered an increase in respiratory, neurobehavioral, and mental illnesses among the residents of communities next factory farms. In a major study, residents in the vicinity of a large pig farmer found to have higher reporting of headaches, runny noses, sore throats, excessive coughing, diarrhea, and burning eyes.

Source: Farm Sanctuary

Children with asthma:

In a study of 226 North Carolina schools, children living within 3 miles of factory farms had significantly higher asthma rates and more asthma related emergency room visits than children living more than 3 miles away.

Source: The CAFO Reader at 71.

N & M DAIRY: A Case Study

Vectors -- Residents plagued by terrible fly infestation and odors.

Ammonia released during decomposition of cow manure caused ear infections, bloody noses, hair and tooth loss.

And Then Theres Water Pollution:

The huge amounts of manure generated by factory farms also causes toxic surface and groundwater contamination.

The CAFO Reader

It is not uncommon for a CAFO on 100 acres to generate the same amount of sewage of the city of 100,000 inhabitants.

The most unregulated industry ...

The CAFO Reader:

More than 1 million Americans take drinking water from groundwater contaminated by nitrogen containing pollutants, mostly derived from agricultural fertilizers and animal waste applications.

Continued.....

Several studies have linked nitrates in the drinking water to birth defects, disruption of thyroid function, and various types of cancers.

Yakima Valley ....

Huge industrial dairies one alone confines more than 10,000 cows. Dairies this size often produce more waste than the towns located nearby.

Nitrates in the water threaten public health throughout the valley.

IV. Toxic World

Methane released from CAFO lagoons are 70x more damaging per ton to the earths atmosphere than CO2.

Our toxic, chemical-dependent industrialized agriculture system is responsible for one-half of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

Bottom Line:

So great is the public health threat posed by factory farms that the worlds largest association of public health professionals, the American Public Health Association (APHA), issued a resolution urging state and local officials to impose a precautionary moratorium on the construction of new factory farms.

Source: The Sustainable Table

Baby Hedgehog (palate cleanser)

For More Info www.publicjustice.net

Briefs and resources: http://publicjustice.net/what-we-do/food-safety-health

lbrueckner@publicjustice.net l