Letter to the Editor: Protect Public Health

The following is a letter to the editor, submitted by Leigh-Ana Rossitto of Canton.

Next year, I will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study chemical engineering with a concentration in pharmaceuticals. I hope to make a difference in the world by making medicine.

This is why I am so concerned about the overuse of antibiotics on factory farms. Up to 80 percent of all antibiotics in the U.S. go to healthy livestock. This wouldn’t be a problem, if the medicine was necessary. However, instead of being used as a treatment, the medicine is a prevention technique that factory farms employ to maintain poor conditions. It sickens me to think our life-saving medicine is being used so inappropriately.

Now, the problem has become bigger than just the farms. The abuse of antibiotics on factory farms is expediting the development of antibiotic resistance in certain strains of bacteria. This means our treatments will no longer be effective, and common infections could become deadly. Already, 23,000 people die every year from antibiotic-resistant infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is a problem that effects everyone. It is unacceptable that we allow factory farms to operate this way. We need to enact change now, and this is where you come in. It takes all of us to protect public health. Get involved, and let the Obama Administration know that we won’t tolerate this anymore.

-Leigh-Ana Rossitto, Canton CT