Increased Levels of Arsenic in Chicken Raises Health Concerns

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future have come up with a cautionary study which may alarm those who love to eat chicken. The birds are likely raised with arsenic-based drugs, resulting in excessive levels of inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspective, is the first of its kind that focuses on concentrations of particular forms of arsenic in retail chicken meat, and is the first study that compares these concentrations to whether or not the poultry was raised with arsenical drugs. This study shows how arsenical drugs in chicken trigger public health risk and urges the FDA to ban arsenicals.

The study analyzed USDA Organic chicken samples that were purchased from 10 U.S. cities, taken between December 2010 and 2011. This was at the same time when an arsenic-based drug manufactured by Pfizer known as roxarsone was easily available to several poultry companies. Apart from the inorganic arsenic, the researchers also identified residual roxarsone in the meat they analyzed.  

They noticed that in the meat that had roxarsone, the level of inorganic arsenic was four times more than the levels in USDA Organic chicken, in which the use of arsenicals are banned.

Poultry companies use arsenic to make the poultry grow faster and improve the pigmentation of the meat. They also use it to treat and prevent parasites in the poultry. According to the study, in 2010, nearly 88 percent of the nine billion chickens that were raised for human consumption in the U.S. had received roxarsone.

"The suspension of roxarsone sales is a good thing in the short term, but it isn't a real solution. Hopefully this study will persuade FDA to ban the drug and permanently keep it off the market," lead author Keeve Nachman, PhD, said in a press statement. 

Exposure to chronic inorganic arsenic is linked to lung, bladder and skin cancer, as well as other conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cognitive deficits, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.