Chicken factory farms on the Delmarva Peninsula have been using arsenic in their chicken feed as a growth promoter for the last 60 years. Arsenic is a known carcinogen and is more commonly used in rat poison. A nationwide study found detectable traces of arsenic in the chicken we eat everyday: 100 percent in the tested chicken in fast food restaurants and 74 percent of the chicken we buy in grocery stores. Public health problems linked to chronic exposure to this toxin include lung and kidney cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurological disorders in children. In addition, these factory farms produce waste equivalent to a city of 4 million people (Maryland’s population is only 6 million) and the waste, along with the arsenic, is running off into the Chesapeake Bay, threatening our water, fisheries, and oysters. It’s time to put an end to this harmful practice—the European Union banned arsenic in chicken feed over 10 years ago. At Food and Water Watch, we are working on a statewide campaign to pass a bill in the spring to permanently ban arsenic from chicken feed, but Maryland state representatives need to see that there is broad public support for this issue. In Southern Maryland, we are asking Senator Roy Dyson and Delegate Anthony O’Donnell to stand up for Maryland’s public health and environment. For more information on how you can help, log onto: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/act-now-for-poison-free-poultry-in-md/ or contact Shelley Alingas at shelley@greencorps.org.

Dear Member of the General Assembly,

In the last 50 years, the chicken industry in Maryland has changed dramatically.  Today, unlike in the past, hundreds of thousands of chickens are grown in large-scale facilities by a small number of farmers. Unfortunately, a normal practice of this increasingly industrialized poultry system is the use of arsenic as part of a chicken’s diet, which poses a threat to public health and the environment. We urge you to take action to protect Maryland residents by ending the use of arsenic in the poultry production.

Used originally to treat intestinal disease in chickens, arsenic is now also used as a growth promoter and cosmetic additive in chicken feed. Its use creates several routes for potential exposure to arsenic, including human ingestion of arsenic that remains in the chicken’s body when eaten.  A recent study found that 55% of chicken in grocery stores and 100% of chicken bought in fast food restaurants had detectable traces of arsenic.  Arsenic from chicken litter also ends up in local crop fields and can contaminate ground and surface water.  On the Delmarva Peninsula, for instance, 11 million chickens a week are raised by approximately 1,700 chicken operations, producing more waste than a city of 4 million people.

New scientific research reveals that arsenic in poultry feed poses significant risks for both human health and the environment:

• Chronic exposure to arsenic is associated with increased risk for bladder, kidney, lung, liver, and colon cancer, as well as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neurological problems in children
• Manure produced on the Delmarva Peninsula far exceeds the local need to fertilize crops, by two or three times as much in some areas, posing serious potential for excess runoff into the Chesapeake Bay
• An analysis of Delmarva tap water found higher levels of arsenic where chicken litter is spread on fields than where it is not. Groundwater tests throughout Maryland’s coastal plains found arsenic concentrations that reached up to 13 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tolerance limit

Maryland residents do not need further arsenic exposure from the chicken they eat or in their local environment. Researchers are developing alternatives to treat intestinal disease in chickens, including probiotics and vaccines. Yet many in the poultry industry vigorously defend the effectiveness and safety of arsenicals and tries to pin any consumer exposure to arsenic on naturally occurring levels in the environment. It should not be left to consumers to reconcile company claims with limited data about arsenic use.

Maryland has the opportunity to be a model for a nation-wide transition towards a healthier and more sustainable model of chicken production.  We, the undersigned organizations, urge you to support legislation to end the use of arsenic in the poultry industry and to sign the pledge to support poison-free poultry in Maryland.

Tuesday, March 24th, at 6:30 p.m

The presentation will be at the Prince Frederick Public Library, Rooms 1-3. The event is hosted by The Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust.

Gerald W. Winegrad will make a presentation and lead a discussion on the decline of the Chesapeake Bay and what needs to be done to restore this great estuary. He will outline why the Bay is in serious trouble after 25 years of recovery efforts under the Bay Program and the expenditure of billions of dollars. Collapsed fisheries, including oysters and shad, and the crab fishery’s serious decline are among many signs of the ecological collapse as Southern Maryland’s thriving seafood industry has been reduced to a remnant of the 1950′s.

The renowned Bay scholar and leader will discuss how we have so poisoned our waters that reports abound of serious infections in humans who come in contact with Bay waters. These reports are widespread-from the Severn to the Nanticoke rivers, and beyond. Rockfish, one of the few success stories in the recovery of living resources, have been turning up with lesions from a chronic wasting disease, which is transmittable to humans. Catfish in the South River have cancerous lesions and male bass from the Potomac are turning up with female egg sacs.

Bay grasses are at only one-third of the acreage agreed upon by the states and oyster populations show no signs of recovery.

When the Bay Program began with the adoption of the first Bay Agreement in 1983, Gerald Winegrad notes, if anyone had chosen to frighten the public into action with a doomsday scenario, it would have probably read as he describes above and yet this scenario has become reality: Just how much worse does this horrible situation have to become before policy makers take the bold but necessary actions to reverse the decline of the Bay? Half-measures and “save the Bay” palliatives won’t do–come learn of the bold, decisive actions that can be taken now to turn the tide.

Senator Winegrad will detail these necessary actions and make the case for controlling human population growth, sprawl development and the loss of forest land. The necessity of regulatory controls for agricultural pollution–the Bay’s greatest source of nutrient and sediment pollution–also will be a focus of his talk. Senator Winegrad will then describe the increasing problems of storm-water runoff from development and how this can be addressed to restore the Bay. He will also present startling data on the impacts of growth and agricultural pollution on the Bay’s decline. Come see this up-to-date presentation and learn how we can Save the Bay and our natural heritage. We all have a special role to play in making these changes to turn the tide.

Senator Gerald W. Winegrad is a former State Senator from Annapolis and for 16 years was the leading environmentalist in the Legislature. He was responsible for many Bay initiatives including the phosphate detergent ban. He Chaired the Senate Environment and Chesapeake Bay Subcommittee and served on the Chesapeake Bay Commission for 12 years. Gerald Winegrad was called the “environmental conscience” of the Senate by the Washington Post and Tom Horton wrote that “he is the person who more than any other set Maryland’s environmental agenda over the past 16 years”. In 2002 he was presented the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He is a Professor at the graduate School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, where he teaches courses on Bay restoration and wildlife management.