The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50177

David B. Wallinga, MD, MPA, Food and Health Program, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2105 First Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55404, 612-870-3418, dwallinga@iatp.org

Toxic chemicals and disease-causing bacteria are now common contaminants of food. Current government regulations and policies can encourage analyses of these problems that start at the supermarket shelf or the slaughterhouse, and end at the kitchen table. Yet this approach often is neither oriented to primary prevention, nor fully protective of public health. This presentation focuses on two examples of how an ecological or "upstream" perspective could improve public health by reducing food contamination at its source. The examples are methylmercury contamination of fish, and contamination of meat with drug-resistant bacteria. By recent estimates, 70% of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are put into the feed and water of healthy beef cattle, swine and poultry - a practice now directly linked to contamination of a significant percentage of supermarket-purchased meats with drug-resistant pathogens. Every state in the U.S. now issues advisories against fish contaminated with methylmercury; 60,000 children a year are born to women with enough mercury exposure to put these newborns at risk from adverse effects on brain development. A brief overview of these problems will be presented, followed by a discussion of current public health approaches in at least one state. The hurdles to more effective policy and health protection will also be addressed.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, the participant in this session will be able to

• Describe an ecological approach to food safety.
• Give examples of two food safety issues where an ecological approach would result in significantly different public health interventions that those commonly pursued by federal and state government.
• State the percentage of antibiotics used in the U.S. each year recently estimated to be used in healthy food animals.

Keywords: Environmental Health, Food Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.