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Imagine digging in on a t-bone steak that has come from a cow that obtained growth steroids. The steak may not taste any different from the same untreated products, but the hormones they contain could both, directly and indirectly, have an impact on your health. Injection of hormones in food animals started being used in food animal production as early as 1930’s. Although America permits the use of growth in cattle, the fact that Europe deemed hormone use unlawful raises many questions about the possible health risks these hormones may have on consumers and the ethics behind it.
Individuals question if the use of growth hormones is impactful or hazardous to human health.
However, Growth Hormones have negligible impact on human health due to to the standards set by the FDA. America is the world’s largest producers of beef. Relatively 36 million beef cattle are cultivated in America each year, and almost two-thirds are injected with hormones. Producers inject these steroids to increase the growth rate in their cattle.
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By increasing the cattle’s rate in growth, producers can supply more beef and still have a greater income, while selling it at an inexpensive rate to consumers. The growth hormones authorized to beef cattle may already be naturally produced in their own bodies. According to Department of Food and Drug Administration , “People are not at risk from eating food from animals treated with these drugs because the amount of additional hormone following drug treatment is very small compared with the amount of natural hormones that are normally found in the meat of untreated animals and that are naturally produced in the human body” (Steroid Hormone Implants).
Cattle that have not been treated with growth steroids still has levels of hormones in their beef, due to the already produced hormones cattle produce naturally. Consumers of beef fear that added hormones in cattle could disturb natural hormone operations in humans, especially developing children, increasing the threat of issues such as reproductive abnormalities.“There aren’t a lot of studies, but some suggest a link,” (Wallinga). Wallinga references a 2007 University of Rochester study that established adult sperm count became 23 percent lower in men whose mothers ate meat more than seven times a week while pregnant, compared with men whose mothers ate less . “Adult sperm count is a proxy for the hormone environment those kids were subjected to,” he adds, so the study seemed to suggest that their mother’s intake of beef may have altered their hormone function(wallinga). However, this study became unreliable due to the fact the men used in the study recently had become fathers.
Further, Etherton notes, these studies tend to depend on people’s memories of what they ate in the past, which tends to be inaccurate. Furthermore, the FDA emphasizes that studies show that treating food-producing animals with growth hormones present no danger to humans. Toxicology results have proved the levels a which hormone injected meat have are considered safe. Regulations obligate the levels of hormones in food to be lower than that safety mark. “Residues in meat are really, really small at the picogram level,” (Etherton). Etherton makes the example of a football stadium filled with white ping pong balls, a pictogram would represent 20 orange ping pong balls mixed with the white.
This shows how small the levels of added hormones show up in meat. “There’s no evidence of increased risk to the consumer or any human health effects at those levels,” he says. However, Etherton also acknowledges that large long term population studies, have not been explored to see the possibility of risks from hormones in meat. Given the current studies, some scientists feel there is close to no evidence to suggest such studies are needed. Additionally, seldom is known about the animal welfare side of growth hormone in cattle. Due to a study by Gaughan, its suggested that cattle with growth implants could possibly be affected by hot climatic conditions. Managing the heat impact in grazing cattle is crucial to their welfare and the use of such implants should be carefully considered for cattle in hot climates.
The place of injection of the hormonal implant should also be carefully placed. Due to the region below the ear having significant muscle movement, an implant in this area could cause the injection to enlarge and become irritated. “Failure to disinfect the implant site and not injecting the implant properly are common causes of problems at the injection site” (What are the animal welfare impacts). This raises concerns on the ethics behind implanting cattle. Like Chester Southams patients, these cattle are both clueless and have no say on what is going into their body. However, the amount of growth steriod that is added can be so small that is has negilible affect of the cow at all.
The use of hormonal growth promoters and antimicrobial growth promoters in food-producing animals has caused many concerns on their human health impacts. By following through with hazard identifications, hazard characterizations, and risk characterizations, we attain more scientific background for decisions on risk management options in the protection of public health. Recent results of risk assessments on hormonal substances including growth hormones indicate that natural steroid hormones have negligible human health impact.
Hormone Injection in Food Animals: Impact on Public Health Risk Management. (2022, Mar 28). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/injection-of-hormones-in-food-animals-and-its-impact-on-risk-management-options-in-the-protection-of-public-health-essay
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