HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

138

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO INVESTIGATE AND REPORT ON THE POSSIBLE LINKS BETWEEN THE USE OF GROWTH HORMONES AND ANTIBIOTICS IN CHICKENS FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION AND HUMAN OBESITY RATES.

 

 

WHEREAS, drugs are used in animals for three reasons: to treat disease, to prevent disease, and to increase animal production; and

WHEREAS, however, there has always been an overlap between the two medical uses of drugs in animals and the third use relating to increasing productivity; and

WHEREAS, drugs used to increase productivity, called promotants, are a cause of concern because animals are forced to grow unnaturally faster; and

WHEREAS, as far as chicken production is concerned, there are two main types of promotants: growth hormones and antibiotics; and

WHEREAS, growth hormones, mainly anabolic steroids such as sex hormones, are used in the United States but are currently banned in the European Union; and

WHEREAS, antibiotics are added to the feed of broiler chickens and pigs to stimulate their growth, so that more meat is produced for the investment. Some but not all of these antibiotics are currently banned in the European Union, while evidence is being collected on possible threats they may pose to human health; and

WHEREAS, residue from growth hormones may be present in meat and become a hazard to people consuming the food, for example, some anabolic steroids are believed to cause cancer if present at sufficiently high concentrations; and

WHEREAS, there is also a suspicion that growth hormones, which promote unnaturally fast growth and obesity in chickens, may cause obesity in humans consuming chickens so treated; and

WHEREAS, antibiotics are used to treat specific infections in animals but low doses are also added to feed in intensive livestock production to make animals grow faster, probably by limiting sub-clinical infections; and

WHEREAS, an article in the New Scientist, vol. 17, page 19, August 3, 2003 reported that in the late 1990s, it became clear that the resistance genes the administration of antibiotics promotes in bacteria in the animals' guts spread to human bacteria, causing more antibiotic-resistant infections; and

WHEREAS, that same article reported that the World Health Organization published a report concluding that a voluntary ban by Danish farmers on growth promoters in chickens and pigs cut antibiotic resistance in bacteria in the animals by over ninety per cent, with little cost to farmers and no increase in the bacterial burden of meat; and

WHEREAS, the report on the voluntary Danish ban on antibiotic growth promoters found that:

(1) Antibiotic use overall dropped by fifty-four per cent;

(2) There was no resulting surge in animal disease;

(3) There was barely any change in the amount of antibiotics used to treat specific infections;

(4) There was no change in the cost of producing chickens and a one per cent increase in the cost of producing pigs - which the panel thought would be offset by increased consumer confidence in meat;

(5) Reduced public health costs; and

(6) There was no measurable effect on antibiotic resistance in human infections, but the impact may be considerable elsewhere because Denmark imposes very stringent control and monitoring of human antibiotic use; and

WHEREAS, that World Health Organization report came just weeks after the European Union's agriculture ministers adopted a total ban on antibiotic growth promoters in animals from the year 2006; and

WHEREAS, stopping the use of antibiotic growth promoters will help to preserve and increase the effectiveness of the use of antibiotics in humans and thus help prevent the development of potentially fatal antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and

WHEREAS, the World Health Organization had first recommended banning the practice of the use of antibiotic growth promoters in animals in 2000; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to investigate and report on the possible links between the use of growth hormones and antibiotics in chickens for human consumption and human obesity rates; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to submit its report and findings, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

DOH Study; Chickens; Growth Hormones/Antibiotics; Human Obesity