THE EDITOR, Sir:
I WATCHED with much horror the newscast on May 20, 2003 on CBS Evening News, detailing the recently proven scientific link between US-produced beef fed with all kinds of chemicals and what is an ever increasing incidence of breast cancer. Jamaicans be aware.
Concerns raised among the scientists at Ohio State University, in a series of tests done for the Pentagon, is of the most widely used hormones, Zeranol, a synthetic oestrogen implanted in cattle aimed at fattening the animals rapidly, to ensure more profits when slaughtered.
The progression of breast cancer is known to depend upon oestrogen, such as this particular synthetic oestrogen. Interest-ingly enough it is for this reason that the European union has seen it fit to ban beef hormones. Of course, they only have mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy). It brings us to the question of whether our local Jamaican importers of meat have a duty to inform the Jamaica people which country they import their meats from and if these meats are treated with these cancer-causing hormones.
Now is the time for Jamaicans to consume more local grass fed beef, if beef is your thing. Quality ought not to be substituted for quantity. Jamaicans should also be concerned about genetically modified (GM) foods which seem to creep into our diets without even knowing that we have consumed them. Become more informed Jamaica. The cheaper product is almost always not the best in the long run.
I am etc.,
COURTNEY BOWEN
ridim1027@yahoo.com
Severn MD
Via Go-Jamaica
