The study is the first to link a human health risk to the feed additive that has been widely used since the 1960s by commercial chicken producers to control intestinal parasites, reduce stress, stimulate growth and improve the color of chicken meat.

Dr. Partha Basu, the study's lead author and associate professor in Duquesne's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said laboratory analysis reveals that the antibiotic arsenic compound roxarsone, which promotes the growth of blood vessels in chickens to produce pinker meat, does the same in human cell lines -- a critical first step in many human diseases, including cancer.

"This is a significant finding as it relates to potential human health effects from roxarsone," said Dr. Basu, who worked on the study with scientists from Thermo Fisher Scientific laboratories and the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

"We wanted to test if roxarsone, which increases pigmentation by forming more blood vessels in chickens, does the same in humans and the answer is yes," Dr. Basu said. "It's a process called angiogenesis, a common growth process, but also one that occurs in many diseases and cancers."

Source: Post-Gazette