[amro] Re: Are you eating E.coli on July 4th?

From: NRDC Activist Alert <earthaction@nrdcaction.org>
To: chory44@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2012 1:08 PM
Subject: Are you eating E.coli on July 4th?

Visit NRDC's Action Center at http://www.nrdconline.org/site/R?i=jKOWP-BKNMZzFJ7zWvbHwA

Click here to tell the FDA: Unenforceable guidelines are not enough to protect us from antibiotic-resistant superbugs like E.coli. Emilio, Getting ready for the 4th of July? Before you head to the grocery store to shop for the big barbeque, there's something you should know: 51.8% of tested chicken breasts at grocery stores are contaminated with antibiotic-resistant E.coli. This dangerous superbug has no place in our food supply -- but our nation's livestock industry is breeding E.coli and other dangerous drug-resistant bacteria by needlessly dosing healthy animals with antibiotics. The Food and Drug Administration has the authority to stop this reckless practice -- and it's accepting comments from the public right now. Will you send the FDA a letter before July 10th demanding an end to the misuse of antibiotics in livestock? People need antibiotics when they get sick, but right now 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are fed to livestock -- and the vast majority are used on animals that do not need the drugs. These animals are dosed anyway to promote faster weight gain and to compensate for crowded and unsanitary conditions. It's like taking antibiotics to avoid getting sick, instead of just washing your hands. Superbugs can easily make their way out of the farm and spread to humans through infected food and water. Just one kind of superbug is estimated to kill more Americans each year than HIV/AIDS. And so far, the FDA has done little to protect our health beyond releasing voluntary guidelines -- mere suggestions that the food and pharmaceutical industries can choose to follow or ignore entirely. We need to send a clear message to the agency charged with protecting human health: this empty gesture is not enough. Will you help pressure the FDA to finally end the dangerous misuse of antibiotics on livestock by sending a letter by July 10th? FDA decisionmakers are shutting down public comments in just over a week, so we have to act quickly to send as many letters as possible.

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