Article Summary 2 Davies Outline 05/01/14

Name: Brandon Presentation Date:

Find an article relating to biological anthropology from a scientific peer-reviewed journal and complete the first (Original source) and second (Reflection) parts of the outline. Find a second source related to your first and complete the third part of the outline (Related source). This may be a popular review of the original source. Limited responses will not receive full credit. More detailed instructions and links to resources are posted in Canvas. This outline should be completed and turned in on the day you present to the class and it will be used for grading the assignment. Additionally, submit the summary portions only in Canvas. No late work will be accepted.

Pts. 1. Original source: .5 ____ a. Title: Poultry Drug Increases Levels of Toxic in Chicken Meat .5 ____ b. Author(s): Keeve E. Nachman, Patrick A. Baron, Georg Raber, Kevin A. Francesconi, Ana Navas-Acien, and David C. Love. .5 ____ c. Authors credentials: PhD, Master of Health Science .5 ____ d. Source (complete reference) John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 5 ____ e. Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required). This summary should identify the research topic, hypothesis, methods, results, and conclusion: Summary is at end of outline 1 ____ f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): The source is credible because 5 of the 6 authors have PhD degrees and work at John Hopkins. They helped with the study themselves and John Hopkins is the largest public health training facility in the United States. 1 ____ g. Relevance to biological anthropology: The fact that we may have cancer causing ingredients in our food can lead to the deaths of many humans. Anthropologists can look to determine ways to help the manufacturers discover cancer-causing ingredients and also create safer ones. 1 ____ h. Other disciplines touched upon: According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data, at least 75 percent of Americans regularly eat chicken. i. Synthesis 1 ____ i. In one sentence, summarize the main point of the article: the take-away message. Chickens that are fed arsenical-based drugs like roxarsone, contain dangerous amounts of arsenic that can lead to cancer. 2 ____ 2. Reflection

a. Which part of this assignment was most difficult and why? Finding the topic and article I wanted to write a summary about. I didnt know where to start and I found myself looking for about a half hour. It was a little frustrating. b. Identify at least one question you have after reading the original article and explain how you could go about finding an answer. I wonder how many of the other foods that I eat have chemicals fed to animals or plant that I do not know about. This really made me question the food I get and made me want to read what the labels say. Im sure by going to the USDA website I can find out more about whats in my food. I can also look for scholarly articles in the links on Canvas that Professor Schaefer provided. c. Reflect on how the critical evaluation process impacted your opinion on the article. On the reference of the University of Colorados website for critically evaluating your source, the very first question it asks is Is the author formally educated on the subject? This made totally believe that what I was reading was true because it was a combined 5 doctors with their PhDs who wrote it. d. How might the information in the article be useful in the future? This might be answered very broadly such as how an understanding of larger biological principles might be useful. I can use it to my benefit and buy chicken that is organic. I know now to look at what is inside the food. I am probably going to do some research on just how bad McDonalds really is. The article spurred interest in me to find out more about what I eat instead of just buying it without knowing. 3. Related source .5 ____ .5 ____ .5 ____ 3 ____ a. b. c. d. e. Title: Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in Your Meat Author(s): David Wallinga Authors credentials: Medical Doctor Complete reference Playing Chicken: Avoiding Arsenic in Your Meat Summary (note that the summary length should be commensurate with the article length and should be in narrative (paragraph) format and that an in-text citation is required): Summary is at end of outline f. Critical evaluation (what makes this source credible? Why should this information be believed?): This article and document had 30 pages altogether which contained information from a study conducted. You could see all the charts and numbers right in front of you. There was extensive amounts of information that showed how well informed the author was about this particular issue. g. Relevance to chosen article: In this article, it was focused mainly on arsenic itself and how bad it can potentially be. It had more detailed statistics and information about inorganic arsenic which was the main topic in the first article.

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Summary on Original Source

Whenever you go to big chain grocery stores like Smiths and Wal Mart, youll be able to find just about any food you want. You buy your food and it tastes good, but do you know whats really in it? Do you know where the food was and how the livestock was raised? These are all some questions that were raised in my head when I found these articles and read more about the possibility of my food having cancer-causing ingredients. The main idea in this article that I found on the Science Daily website, was based on the idea that the chicken we are eating that is fed arsenic-based has a greater chance of having higher levels of inorganic arsenic. Inorganic arsenic is a known carcinogen, and a carcinogen is something that is known to cause cancer. There was a study performed by researchers at the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and it was meant to compare arsenic concentrations between poultry that was raised using arsenical drugs with those that werent. Conventional, antibiotic-free, and USDA Organic chicken samples were bought from 10 U.S. metropolitan areas between December 2010 and June 2011. They chose that time period because it was between those years that the manufacturing company, Pfizer, was selling an arsenic-based drug named roxarsone to any poultry company that wanted to use it in their chickens food. In the meat that had roxarsone traces, the levels of inorganic arsenic were four times higher than the levels in the USDA Organic chicken, which prohibits all arsenic chemicals. Roxarsone is made with organic arsenic, which is less toxic than inorganic arsenic. Bacteria in the soil and left over chicken meat, can convert the metal from one form to another. Farmers use it to make bigger chickens on less feed, fight disease between the birds, and it makes the chicken meat look better as far as the color.

Arsenic drugs have been used for poultry products for decades. It is used to make the chicken grow faster and improve the pigmentation of the meat. It can also help treat and prevent parasites in the chickens. Industry representatives in 2010 estimated that about 88 percent of the 9 billion chickens raised for humans to eat used roxarsone. In July 2011 the manufacturer of the drug, Pfizer, voluntarily took it off the market, but they can still sell overseas and can continue in the U.S whenever they want. They still market a similar drug named nitarsone, it is chemically similar to roxarsone. The United States has no federal law prohibiting the sale or use of arsenic based drugs in poultry feed. Why should we be concerned about this? Prolonged exposure to inorganic arsenic has been shown to cause lung, bladder, and skin cancers and has been associated with other conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Survey data retrieved from the National Examination Survey. Data showed that at least 75 percent of Americans eat chicken regularly. This relates to anthropology because chicken is something that most of us eat very frequently. Since it may have bad effects on our health, its a concern for us. It is important for anthropologists to understand how consumption of inorganic arsenic can be harmful to our bodies. Epidemiologists and anthropologists can often help each other when studying a skeleton to help determine the cause of death.

Summary on Related Source The second article was focused mostly on the drug arsenic itself. Arsenic causes cancer even at the levels it occurs at in our natural environment. Humans can be exposed to it either by its natural occurrence in the earths crust or when it is mined and then used intentionally. Studies

by David Wallinga (2006) reveal that of the 8.7 billion American boiler chickens produced each year, an estimated 70% have been fed arsenic. Wallinga estimates that 1.7 to 2.2 million pounds of roxarsone are given to chickens each year. That drug does not degrade or disappear so it stays within the chicken meat. Arsenic is given to chickens to promote faster growth with less feed. It is also used to help fight disease from spreading among flocks and it can help prevent intestinal diseases. Poultry companies want to use this drug because of the benefits it has. The chickens get bigger and gain more weight on less food, and the pigment in the chicken meat looks more appealing. Since there are no federal laws banning its use, it makes sense why companies do it. The bottom line is that the study performed in this source was to see whether or not this is something that is an actual problem. Its hard when someone gets cancer to automatically say it came from chicken or other meats with roxarsone. Arsenic is present in our natural environment so people can just as easily say that the area the patient was from just had high arsenic levels. The study showed that arsenic is common in uncooked chicken from supermarkets, but not all supermarket chicken had it. The big picture is that different chicken suppliers use arsenic differently and it is up to you, the consumer, to examine your chicken and read labels before buying it.