- "...litter produced from a typical chicken house
puts 8.8 short tons of arsenic into the surrounding environment each year."
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- Prairie Grove Suit Focuses On Poultry Feed-Additive
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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,"
OíConnor 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- A study conducted this year for the U.S. Geological Survey
in Denver supports that theory.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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- http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_businessmatters.php?storyid=52161
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