From: Janet Smarr [jsmarr@ucsd.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 1:44 PM
To: EXECSEC
Subject: antibiotics

Dear Commissioner Jane Henney,
	I am aware of wide popular anxiety about how the overuse of antibiotics in
animal and poultry farming is producing resistant bacteria that make it
increasingly difficult for humans to get their illnesses cured. One report
estimates that "a staggering 24.6 million pounds -roughly 70 percent of all
antibiotic drugs - are fed to healthy cows, pigs, and chickens annually for
nontherapeutic purposes such as growth promotion." However, there seems to
be very little hard data about the types and quantities of antibiotics used
in agriculture. Such data is necessary to any scientific efforts to improve
the current situation. Please make it one of your first tasks to establish
such data collection. Thank you for your concern. - Dr. Janet Smarr, La
Jolla CA