Monsanto's GM drug Still Threatens Public Health: Bovine Growth

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GMW: Monsanto's GM drug Still Threatens Public Health

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Sat, 5 Feb 2005 15:21:20 GMT

 

 

 

 

Monsanto's GM drug Still Threatens Public Health

http://www.gmwatch.org

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More on Monsanto's genetically-engineered cattle drug, Bovine Growth

Hormone (rBGH).

 

'Acting on this cumulative evidence, a 1999 European Commission report

by a team of internationally recognized experts concluded: " Avoidance

of rBGH dairy products in favor of natural products would appear to be

the most practical and immediate " dietary intervention to . . .

(achieve) the goal of preventing cancer. " '

 

Reference is made below to a campaign in support of rBGH being run by

the Hudson Institute. Founded in 1961, the Hudson Institute is,

according to its own literature, a right wing think tank 'dedicated to

thinking

about the future from a contrarian point of view'. It has been funded

by, amongst others: Monsanto, Novartis Crop Protection, Zeneca, Du Pont,

DowElanco, ConAgra, Cargill, AgrEvo, Dow AgroSciences, and Procter &

Gamble. Founder Herman Kahn was a physicist and military strategist who

suggested that nuclear war was winnable.

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http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm

 

Despite Industry Propaganda Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone Still

Threatens Public Health

 

The " Milk is Milk " Industry Campaign Threatens Public Health

 

CHICAGO, Feb. 3 - - The Cancer Prevention Coalition and Organic

Consumers Association today released the following statement by Samuel S.

Epstein, M.D., professor emeritus, Environmental & Occupational Medicine,

University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman,

Cancer Prevention Coalition; and Ronnie Cummins, National Director,

Organic Consumers Association.

 

Last month, the Hudson Institute's agribusiness-funded Center for

Global Food Issues launched an aggressive " Milk is Milk " campaign to

assure

consumers that there is no difference between natural milk and that

from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically-engineered or recombinant

Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) to increase milk production and

profitability. This campaign is also aimed at preventing organic dairy

farmers and

retailers from making " false or misleading claims to be hormone-free,

(and) nutritional and animal welfare perceptions, such as happier cows. "

Responding to Hudson's complaints, the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) announced that it will take action against such misleading

marketing

practices.

 

However, contrary to Hudson, there is a wealth of scientific

information on the toxic veterinary effects of rBGH, major differences

between

rBGH and natural milk, and cancer risks posed by rBGH milk. Revealingly,

Hudson uses the term rBST, recombinant Bovine Somatotropin, avoiding

any reference to the word " Hormone " in Monsanto's original acronym rBGH.

 

Cows hyper-stimulated by repeated rBGH injections are seriously

stressed. Such evidence, detailed in confidential Monsanto files

submitted to

the FDA in 1987, was anonymously leaked to one of us (Epstein) in

November 1989. These files revealed widespread pathological lesions,

infertility, and chronic mastitis, treated with illegal antibiotics.

Acting on

this information, in 1990 the House Committee on Government Operations

charged " that Monsanto and the FDA have chosen to suppress and

manipulate animal health test data-in efforts to approve commercial

use " of

rBGH. This charge is also consistent with the Committee's 1986 report,

" Human Food Safety and the Regulation of Animal Drugs. " This concluded

that the " FDA has consistently disregarded its responsibility-has

repeatedly put what it perceives are interests of veterinarians and the

livestock industry ahead of its legal obligation to protect

consumers-jeopardizing the health and safety of consumers of meat,

milk and poultry. "

 

By 1994, when FDA approved the use of rBGH under Monsanto's trade name

Posilac, the label insert, seen only by dairy farmers, admitted that

" its use is associated with increased frequency of use of medication in

cows for mastitis, " and some 20 other toxic effects. Such information on

the Posilac label is clearly inconsistent with Hudson's criticism of

" happier cow " claims by organic dairy farmers.

 

Also contrary to Hudson, rBGH milk differs qualitatively and

quantitatively from natural milk. Fat levels, particularly long chain

saturated

fatty acids incriminated in heart disease, are increased, while levels

of a thyroid hormone enzyme are increased. Furthermore, the high

incidence of chronic mastitis in rBGH injected cows results in

contamination

of their milk with pus, and with antibiotics used to treat the

infection, with risks of allergic reactions and nationwide antibiotic

resistance. Less well recognized is contamination of rBGH milk with

the hormone

itself, and immunological evidence of absorption of the hormone from the

intestine.

 

Even more seriously, rBGH milk is contaminated with high levels of the

natural Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which regulates cell

growth, division and multiplication throughout life, particularly in

infants and young children; Eli Lilly, in its application for

registration of

rBGH, admitted that IGF-1 blood levels of injected cows are increased

up to ten-fold. IGF-1 is resistant to pasteurization and digestion, and

is readily absorbed from the small intestine. Monsanto's own data

revealed that feeding IGF-1 to adult rats for only two weeks

significantly

increased body and liver weights, and bone length.

 

More critically, increased IGF-1 blood levels have been incriminated as

a major cause of cancer. IGF-1 induces uncontrolled growth of normal

human breast cells in tissue culture, and has been incriminated in their

transformation to cancer cells. Some 30 publications, dating back to

1985, have reported strong associations between increased IGF-1 blood

levels with increased risks of colon, and breast cancers. A 1998 study,

based on 300 healthy nurses, showed that elevated IGF-1 blood levels are

strongly associated with up to a seven-fold increased risk of

developing premenopausal breast cancer. This is the highest known risk,

approximating to that of a strong family history. More recent studies

have also

shown strong associations between increased IGF-1 blood levels and

prostate cancer.

 

Of related concern is evidence that elevated IGF-1 levels inhibit the

body's normal ability to protect itself from microscopic cancers by the

natural process of programmed cell destruction, known as " apoptosis. "

This promotes the growth and invasiveness of early cancers, and also

decreases their responsiveness to chemotherapy.

 

Acting on this cumulative evidence, a 1999 European Commission report

by a team of internationally recognized experts concluded: " Avoidance of

rBGH dairy products in favor of natural products would appear to be the

most practical and immediate " dietary intervention to . . . (achieve)

the goal of preventing cancer. " Furthermore, this warning has been

endorsed (in our 2002 publication in a leading scientific journal) by

over

100 leading independent experts in cancer prevention and public health,

besides citizen activist groups.

 

This endorsement was coupled with insistence that the public has an

absolute right-to-know of information on avoidable causes of cancer, a

democratic right which the agribusiness and FDA continue to subvert.

 

MEDIA CONTACTS

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., professor emeritus Environmental &

Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of

Public Health,

and Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition, 2121 West Taylor Street MC

922, Chicago, IL 60612; phone 312-996-2297; e-mail epstein; web

www.preventcancer.com.

 

Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association, 6101

Cliff Estate Road, Little Marais, MN 55614; phone 218-226-4164; e-mail

ronnie; web www.organicconsumers.org.

 

 

 

 

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