Letter: Meat-borne disease killer of millions

Thursday, Sept. 16, 1999 | 10:15 a.m.

The normally harmless E. coli and salmonella bacteria mutate into virulent strains in the filthy, crowded cages of today's factory farms. They are immunized to life-saving antibiotics through indiscriminate use of these drugs to promote rapid growth of farmed animals.

The dramatic, widely reported epidemics account for only a small fraction of meat-borne infectious diseases. The U.S. Public Health Service estimates that several million Americans are afflicted each year and up to 9,000 killed by this preventable scourge.

But even these figures pale in comparison with the 1.4 million American deaths per year from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases linked with eating animal fat and meat. And these are not reported at all.

DEBBIE DILL

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