CongressDaily
TOKYO--Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare is making an emergency examination of U.S.-grown beef for potential contamination by an endocrine disrupter, diethylstilbestrol (DES), in response to the finding of DES in U.S. beef exported to Switzerland, ministry officials said March 3.
Officials of the MHW's Dairy and Meat Safety Division said Japan began examining samples of U.S. beef on an emergency basis in response to claims by a U.S. nongovernmental organization, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, of Washington, D.C., that two U.S. meat packers, one based in Illinois and the other in Kansas, have exported DES-tainted beef to Switzerland. The Swiss government announced the finding last July.
The ministry asked the U.S. and Swiss governments for information in mid-February but it has yet to receive replies, the officials said.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo released a statement March 3 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service have begun a "full-scale investigation" and that "so far, the U.S. government has not found any evidence of misuse of DES in food-producing animals grown in the United States."
The United States, it said, banned and terminated DES use in 1979 in food-producing animals and that the U.S. government "has had absolutely no reason to believe that DES is being used in food-producing animals before the ongoing investigation. DES is still available, however, for veterinary purposes.
A Japanese nongovernment organization, the Citizens Table for Endocrine Disruptors (Kankyo Hormone Zenkoku Shimin Dantai Table), also has begun checking beef imported from the United States.
Junichi Kowaka, head of the NGO, said the group had purchased 10 samples of U.S. beef--all from Kansas--at local supermarkets and sent them to the Japan Food Analysis Center on Feb. 29. He said the examination is expected to take three to four weeks.
DES is a hormone that once was used widely to enhance cattle growth, but the United States, Japan, and other developed countries terminated the use in the 1970s, according to the ministry officials.
Japan imports about 650,000 tons of beef annually valued at more than $3 billion, of which the United States supplies more than $1.8 billion worth, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
For more information see the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare Internet site at http://www.mhw.go.jp, the CTED Web site at www.daichi.org.jp/kankyohorumon, CSPI site at www.cspinet.org.
By Toshio Aritake
Copyright c 2000 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.:
