Advocates against chicken feed containing the metal compound arsenic rallied on Tuesday, Nov. 9, to educate people about the need for additional labeling in the grocery stores.

Consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch is pushing  for the public to know the ingredients in the food they purchase. The group had speakers and passed out information in front of the Silver Spring Regional Center. The event was a part of a five-part series throughout the state, including others in Baltimore, Southern Maryland and Salibury on the Eastern Shore, where most of Maryland's poultry farms are located.

Rallies were carried out all over Maryland to bring attention to the issue, since Maryland is the seventh largest chicken-producing state in the country. Producers in the state sell more than 300 million broiler chickens per year according to the 2007 Census of Agriculture.

An arsenic compound is used in chicken feed to control a common poultry intestinal disease. The compound was approved by the FDA for feed use in 1944.

In the 1970s, chicken producers began using antibiotics to prevent disease, but Food and Water Watch said arsenic also continues to be used for other effects – to promote growth, and give the chicken a more pink color in the supermarket that some consumers find more appealing. 

Caroline Taylor, director from the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, a land-Preservation group, disagreed with the practice.

"I'd rather have an uglier chicken and be healthier," she said.

The poultry industry defends arsenic-based feed additives and drugs as safe and effective. In a Maryland General Assembly hearing earlier this year, Maryland poultry industry representatives testified that a ban would put Maryland farmers at an economic disadvantage and result in more sick chickens.

One of the largest U.S. poultry companies, Salisbury-based Purdue Farms, said it stopped using arsenic compounds in 2007, but does not support a ban. Tyson Foods, another huge poultry company, said the additives are safe but stopped using them in 2004 due to consumer pressure.

Laili Falatoonzadeh, a community activist working with Food and Water Watch, said most consumers are unaware of arsenic in poultry, and right now have no way of knowing. 

"Consumers should not be left to fend for themselves in the supermarket," said Falatoonzadeh.

Others speakers detailed harmful health and environmental effects of the chemical. Dr. Sakiliba M. Mines, an integrative family physician, said arsenic is a heavy metal that "can become carcinogenic."  

"It promotes damage, including possible renal (kidney) failure and neurological effects...it has a cumulative effect and creates havoc in your system."

Jim Wells, a Chevy Chase resident and attendee of the event, said he was shocked. He would also like to see packages labeled in supermarkets.

"It's awful, we don't know what's in the food. We need to know." Adding, "I love my chicken, but when I think about how much I eat and what could be in it, it scares me.

Legislation to ban arsenic use in feed in Senate Bill 859 is already underway in Maryland, introduced last Spring by Delegate Tom Hucker (D-20th Dist.), who represents Silver Spring and Takoma Park.

Hucker pointed to schools and properties on the Eastern Shore that have been found to be contaminated by arsenic.

 "Once it's in the soil, you can't get rid of it."

The legislation was tabled, but will be re-introduced in next session, in early 2011.