Drug tests shine light on tainted meat in Mexico

Positive drug tests for five standout members of Mexico's national soccer team have forced Mexican officials to acknowledge a problem that goes far beyond sports: Much of Mexico's beef is so tainted with the steroid clenbuterol that it sickens hundreds of people each year. Use of the steroid is illegal. But it has found a niche among ranchers, who marvel at the way it helps cattle build muscle mass before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. The beef is pink and largely free of layers of fat, winning over unwitting consumers. Ranchers call the powdery substance "miracle salts." A few call it "cattle cocaine." Whatever name is used, the substance has unpleasant side effects for human beings. Last year, 297 people felt sick enough after eating tainted meat to visit hospital emergency rooms. Many more just endured the symptoms. Those sickened by tainted meat are usually those who buy organ meat, mainly liver, at markets and cook it at home, said Joel Manrique Moreno, the director of sanitary risk protection for Guanajuato state. The use of clenbuterol and the subject of steroid-tainted meat surged into headlines in Mexico last week when Mexico's Soccer Federation announced the positive tests for the five players. Team leaders asserted the result was due to eating tainted meat, and many agreed, including Mexican President Felipe Calderón, who acknowledged that contamination is a problem in the meat industry...more