The Health Risks to Humans of Using Antibiotics, Steroids and Hormones in Meat Products - Research Paper Example

Further, the Food and Drug Administration is designed to be an objective research-based organization conducting its own independent studies. In nearly all instances associated with hormone and steroid use, the FDA has found little evidence to suggest human health is compromised through these practices. At the same time, health researchers conduct similarly-based studies only to conclude that there are legitimate health consequences associated with not only steroid and hormone use, but also in relation to antibiotic injection and feed practices.

Depending on which entity provides the most trust for consumers, it would appear that science does back potential health consequences, which include the production of resistant bacteria in humans, contamination in environmental systems from animal and human waste, and also increased hospitalization frequency for those who have consumed meat offered antibiotics. The New England Journal of Medicine reports growing instances of humans who have consumed antibiotic-fed meats who continue to produce antibiotic-resistant strains of e.

coli in their intestines (Smith, Besser, Hedberg, Leano & Bender, et al., 651). This epidemiologic study involving 11 participants concluded that nearly all participants that have consumed meat treated with the antibiotic tetracycline excreted e coli strains that were resistant to antibiotic therapy. Upon removing tetracycline from the feed associated with meat consumption, no resistant organisms excreted in human waste maintained any detectable occurrences. This research indicates that those who consume certain antibiotics in meat products will, biologically, begin to develop mutated strains of bacteria that pose much broader health concerns for resistance health studies and clinical treatments.

Furthermore, another study concluded that such consumption of antibiotic-treated meat have higher frequency of hospitalization and altered standard treatment for those with certain bacterial infections. Rather than being treated and released, those with antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria commonly found in human waste of meat consumers had a hospitalization rate of 27 percent (Travers & Barza, S133). Some meat products are offered growth hormones and steroids as a means of curing animal diseases and also stimulating growth to enhance the food supply.

The hormone 17 ? oestradiol has been justified through scientific research studies to be a known carcinogen, as this particular hormone promotes tumor development and tumor promotion impact within the body (Barraud, Lugnier & Dirheimer, 149). 17 ? oestradiol is a sex hormone that is designed to facilitate metabolism changes to expedite hydrolysis in the intestines and alter fat production through biological reprocessing. When consumed, this particular hormone enters a cell’s nucleus and then enacts systemic changes leading to cancer production in some individuals.

Finally, when steroids and hormones are injected or offered in feed products to livestock, traceable amounts of these additives are found in water tables and the in the soil. When livestock manure is transferred to agricultural centers, the hormones and steroids are deposited into the soil and thus pose a health risk to groundwater and surrounding water sources. Certain hormones are also known to be fully traceable in the soil and water tables up to 195 days after exposure