Michael "Blu" Green and his parents sued Alpharma and Alpharma Animal Health, saying that the companies' feed additive Roxarsone caused Green's leukemia.

"We're not making a claim that it's bad for the chickens," Hunter Lundy, an attorney for the Greens, told Circuit Judge Kim Smith during a pretrial hearing Friday. "The danger is what happens in the litter when it gets out in the environment."

The Greens live in Prairie Grove, and say they were exposed to the chemical from nearby poultry farms. Roxarsone is added to chicken food to control intestinal parasites.

But Alpharma attorney Robert Adams says there's no proof that arsenic exposure can cause leukemia. Also, Adams said the Greens haven't shown they were exposed to high levels of arsenic.

Source: Pine Bluff Commercial