Poultry Industry Blamed For Illness
By Christopher Leonard
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
1-7-4
"...litter produced from a typical chicken house puts 8.8 short
tons of arsenic into the surrounding environment each year."
Prairie Grove Suit Focuses On Poultry Feed-Additive
It was a gut-wrenching sight, watching a group of Prairie Grove
residents take the stage and reveal the most painful experiences
of their lives. They spoke of dead children, rare cancers and
devastated families.
Lawyers Hunter Lundy and Clayton Davis helped orchestrate
the Dec. 16 news conference in Fayetteville, hoping to drive
home the point that the poultry industry is to blame for much
of the illness in Prairie Grove. The same day, they filed a lawsuit
on behalf of 12 Prairie Grove residents against poultry companies
in Northwest Arkansas.
The lawsuit will pivot on an obscure chemical called Roxarsone,
a feed-additive for chickens. Lawyers and their experts say
Roxarsone is causing cancer cases in Prairie Grove, including
those of defendants in the case.
If the allegations are affirmed, they could have a far-ranging
impact on the poultry industry, which commonly uses Roxarsone.
John Baker, a Fayetteville lawyer working on the lawsuit, said
other communities are experiencing the same problems as Prairie
Grove, but haven't filed lawsuits.
Rod O'Connor, a former chemistry professor at Texas A&M
University who was hired by Lundy and Davis, said Roxarsone
is the crucial link between cancer cases in Prairie Grove and
chicken litter spread around the town of 2,540 people. "Now
we've actually got the scientific proof," O'Connor said. He tested
dozens of homes in Prairie Grove and found traces of Roxarsone
in more than 95 percent of them, he said. That Roxarsone
degrades into arsenic, he alleges, and causes cancer. His testing
found elevated levels of arsenic in the homes as well, he said.
The suit names as defendants: Alpharma Inc., the maker of
Roxarsone; Cal-Maine Foods; Cargill Inc.; George's Inc.;
Peterson Farms Inc.; Simmons Foods Inc.; and Tyson Foods Inc.
It seeks damages for the plaintiffs' illnesses, emotional distress,
medical expenses and lost wages and punitive damages.
Spokesmen for Alpharma, Simmons Foods, Cargill, Peterson Farms
and Tyson Foods said the companies wouldn't comment on the case
or did not return calls last week.
The Lundy & Davis law firm, based in Lake Charles, La., filed a
similar lawsuit in Jackson, Miss., that was thrown out of court last
year when the judge ruled it was filed in an inconvenient forum for
the defendants in Arkansas.
Ruth Ann Wisener, Tyson's assistant vice president and senior
litigation counsel, said the company filed the motion to dismiss
the Mississippi case. She said Tyson hasn't been served on the
new case and could not comment on it.
Roxarsone is a growth additive that's widely used by poultry
growers, said H. David Chapman, a professor at the department
of poultry science at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Chapman specializes in parasites that sicken chickens. He said
Roxarsone has been used since the 1950s to combat parasites
and increase growth in young chicks.
Roxarsone helps control a parasite-related disease among
chickens called coccidiosis, Chapman said. "In the old days,"
he said, "they could hardly ever raise chickens without big
problems from coccidiosis. Without controlling this disease,
it would not be possible to raise chickens how we do today."
Chicken houses like the ones around Prairie Grove typically
house 20,000 birds at a time. When they first arrive as chicks,
their feed contains trace amounts of Roxarsone, Chapman
said. As the birds mature, their feed is changed and no longer
contains the additive, he said.
Roxarsone alone doesn't stop coccidiosis, but works in
partnership with a group of drugs called ionophores,
Chapman said. Roxarsone is widely used because it makes
chicks grow faster, though nobody knows exactly how that
happens, he said.
The additive contains the element arsenic, which is a known
carcinogen and poison. But Chapman said the form of arsenic
is one that isn't toxic to humans.
Chemist O'Connor agreed with that. But he says health hazards
arise when Roxarsone is passed into chicken litter. When the
litter is spread on fields, the additive breaks down into toxic
arsenic-containing chemicals, he said.
A study conducted this year for the U.S. Geological Survey
in Denver supports that theory.
John Garbarino, a co-author of the study, said Roxarsone
passes through chickens largely unchanged and remains in their
litter. Each chicken excretes 150 milligrams of Roxarsone in its
lifetime, according to the study.
Roxarsone in the litter becomes toxic when it is spread on fields
and exposed to water, Garbarino said. It most commonly breaks
down into arsenate, which is poisonous, though not the most toxic
form of arsenic, he said.
Garbarino's study found that litter produced from a typical
chicken house puts 8.8 short tons of arsenic into the surrounding
environment each year, he said.
O'Connor said the arsenic is getting into houses in Prairie Grove,
where it is sickening residents. He said tests of dust samples from
30 homes there found high levels of arsenic in 28 of them. Further
tests found traces of Roxarsone itself, linking the dust to poultry
litter, he said. "That is the absolute fingerprint because there is no
Roxarsone in rat poison or weed sprays or anything else" that
could raise arsenic levels in the homes, he said.
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