FDA Moves to Ban Cancer-Causing Pork Antibiotic
I’m happy to report that the FDA has proposed that the antibiotic carbadox be banned. Used to fatten up pigs for slaughter, the FDA says the company cannot prove that its use doesn’t cause cancer in people. Carbadox is already limited in Canada, Australia and the European Union.
The government and consumer groups want farmers to stop using it, and other antibiotics, to fatten animals because the practice is helping to spread antibiotic-resistant superbugs. However, the FDA’s main concern is that consumers might be exposed to carcinogenic substances. Yes I know, that sentence- the FDA is worried about substances causing cancer- seems strange but as I always remind you, our message is spreading.
The antibiotic is not used on people (thankfully, as studies have shown it to cause cancer in rats) in the US and because producers aren’t required to report to the FDA which drugs they use, it’s impossible to know which pork products come from pigs treated with carbadox. The is concern is that the antibiotic could linger through consumption and affect thereby people.
From NBC:
“The potential cancer risks are based on an assumed lifetime of consuming pork containing carbadox residues, and short-term changes in diet are unlikely to affect anyone’s lifetime risk. However, removal of the product from the market will reduce the lifetime risk to consumers, which is why (FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine) is taking this action,” the FDA said.”
Antibiotics were first used to treat animals for disease, but once farmers learned that they could make the animals grow faster (read: fatter= more cash), the practice became common place. However, the longer bacteria are exposed to an antibiotic, the more able they are to mutate and therefore evade the effects of the drug. Due to widespread use of antibiotics on farms (and overprescription by doctors) many bacteria, now called “Superbugs”, have evolved and spread– affecting animals and the people who eat their meat. Surprisingly, the FDA has persuaded at least two dozen companies to phase out their use on animals raised for meat.
There are bills in Congress that would limit the use of antibiotics on farms, but they haven’t been enacted yet. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than two million people are infected by drug-resistant germs each year, and 23,000 die of their infections.
While it seems the FDA is finally paying attention to what’s happened, while they’ve been sleeping, now is not the time to sit back and trust they will keep doing the right thing and serving our best interests. It’s time to continue to demand more responsibility and better care. We must continue to remind them that caring for “we the people”, instead of merely lining their pocketbooks, is their job!
