August 7, 2000

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ben Lilliston – 612-870-3416

Minneapolis – David Wallinga, M.D., has joined the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) to study, and raise public awareness about, growing evidence that the use of antibiotics in agriculture has contributed to the rise in antibiotic resistance among disease-causing bacteria. Dr. Wallinga will also study the health effects of pesticides.

Dr. Wallinga formerly worked on pesticide and other toxic chemical issues as a Senior Scientist with the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) in Washington, DC. He is a specialist in the role of environmental chemicals in children’s health, especially neurobehavioral problems such as learning disabilities, and in chemical contamination of food.

"We are very excited to have Dr. Wallinga working with us on the important issue of antibiotics," says IATP President Mark Ritchie. "With antibiotic resistance emerging as a serious health problem, particularly among children, the work Dr. Wallinga will be doing is critical."

Dr. Wallinga is a native of Roseville, MN. He received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota. and practiced primary care medicine in St. Paul and Minneapolis before receiving a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University. He has consulted with the World Bank and the World Health Organization and was a Science and Diplomacy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working on international environmental health in Asia and Latin America. He is the author of Putting Children First: Making Pesticide Levels in Food Safer for Infants & Children, contributing author of In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development, and co-author of several journal articles on EPA requirements for testing of pesticides.

Dr. Wallinga will direct IATP's efforts to drastically reduce the "non-therapeutic" usage of antibiotics in agriculture, where the vast majority of antibiotics are used to promote faster growth of chickens, hogs and other livestock. He will expand and reach out to networks of physicians, nurses and other health professionals to educate them on the role of agricultural misuses of antibiotics in the weakening of antibiotic tools available to the public health community and in infections suffered by their patients.

"We are fortunate to be able to bring someone with Dr. Wallinga’s impressive credentials to the Institute," said Tom Vellenga, Executive Director of IATP. "We look forward to building an effective working relationship between the medical and agricultural communities on the use of antibiotics."