Three Irish farmers died after inhaling angel dust while adding it to animal feed, according to a report on factory farming.
Factory Farming and Human Health draws on international research and was compiled by London-based Dr Tim O'Brien of Compassion in World Farming.
The report quotes an article in the trade journal Animal Pharm (June 3rd, 1992) as alleging that the farmers died after inhaling clenbuterol powder.
The section dealing with abuses of illegal animal growth promoters cites Irish reports of seizures of clenbuterol in December 1992 and said they were "even reported to have been found at the home of an official in the Irish Department of Agriculture".
It added that in April 1995 the Department discovered a form of clenbuterol which had been chemically altered to avoid detection.
It also records a clenbuterol find in north Kerry in January 1996 and one of the first clenbuterol court cases when a farmer was sent to prison for 10 months in December 1996.
The report has been sent by Compassion in World Farming in Ireland to every member of the Food Safety Authority. The report also found that one in three UK chilled raw chickens contain salmonella; 48 per cent of fresh chickens contain diarrhoea-causing campylobacter; and 25 per cent of raw pork sausages and 22 per cent of raw beefburgers contain e-coli.
Although cooking can kill the bacteria, the report says food poisoning was up 400 per cent in the past decade and more needed to be done to improve safety higher up the food chain.
It says cramped conditions, lack of fresh air and animals forced to stand in their own excrement make it difficult to stop the spread of disease-causing bacteria.
But it warns that antibiotics used to prevent disease could be increasing animals' susceptibility to salmonella infection and leading to greater bacterial resistance to human medicines.
"The massive overuse of antibiotics on factory farms to try to contain the inevitable explosion of bacteria and to push animals further beyond their natural growth rates is a strategy doomed to failure."