Arsenic is a chemical that is present in both organic and inorganic forms.  The latter, which is much more toxic to humans, is shockingly present in chicken meat.  Its presence is not a natural one, however.  Food companies intentionally add arsenic to the meat to give many store-bought chickens a healthy-looking coloring and plump appearance.

People are pissed, and rightfully so; arsenic is known to cause cancers as well as a slew of other ailments in humans.  For a long time, nothing has been done about this.

Now, after what was surely many years of awareness, the FDA has finally admitted that roughly 70 percent of chickens sold in the U.S. contain the cancer-causing chemical.

The FDA has asked Pfizer to stop manufacturing the arsenic-containing drug, Roxarsone, that was found in the livers of nearly half of all chicken tested. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, “The agency said it recently conducted a study of 100 broiler chickens that detected inorganic arsenic at higher levels in the livers of chickens treated with 3-Nitro compared with untreated chickens … Pfizer said sale of 3-Nitro would be stopped by early July in order to allow animal producers to transition to other treatments.”

The company responded, saying the level of inorganic arsenic found in the chicken livers “is equivalent to the amount of inorganic arsenic found in an eight-ounce glass of drinking water,” which, given the FDA’s claims, seems more like a condemnation of water companies than a defense of arsenic use in chicken.

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