Monsanto's Genetically Modified Milk Ruled Unsafe by The United Nations

[Guest guest]

Monsanto's Genetically Modified Milk Ruled Unsafe by The United Nations JoAnn

Guest May 06, 2005 18:43 PDT

http://www.preventcancer.com/press/releases/aug24_99.htm

 

CHICAGO, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ — The following was released today by

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, University

of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago:

 

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, the U.N. Food Safety Agency

representing 101 nations worldwide, has ruled unanimously in favor of

the 1993 European moratorium on Monsanto's genetically engineered

hormonal milk (rBGH). This unexpected ruling, revealingly greeted by the

U.S. press with deafeningsilence, is a powerful blow against U.S. global

trade policies which are strongly influenced by powerful multi-national

corporations, such as Monsanto.The Codex Commission ruling has also

forced the U.S. to abandon its threats to challenge the European

moratorium before the World Trade Organization later this year. As

importantly, the ruling represents the first large scale defeat of

genetically modified foods on unarguable scientific grounds, apart from

ethical and ideological concerns.

 

Since the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of unlabeled

rBGH milk in February 1994, the U.S. has exerted considerable pressure

on Mexico and other trading partners to approve rBGH in efforts to

increase pressure on Europe through the World Trade Organization. In

this, they have been strongly supported by reports from the Food and

Agriculture/World Health Organization's (FAO/WHO) Joint Expert

Committees on Food Additives (JECFA), including its latest September

1998 report, which unequivocally absolved rBGH from any adverse

veterinary and public health effects. However, these JECFA committees,

besides others such as those claiming the safety of meat from cattle

treated with sex hormones, operate under conditions of non-transparency

and conflicts of interest, and are predominantly staffed by unelected

and unaccountable U.S. and Canadian regulatory officials and industry

consultants with no expertise in public health, preventive medicine and

carcinogenesis. The 1998 JECFA report on rBGH was then submitted to the

Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods, chaired by

FDA's Director for Veterinary Medicine Dr. Stephen Sundloff who also

played a prominent role in the 1998 JECFA Committee. The Codex Committee

promptly rubber stamped JECFA's seal of approval for rBGH with the

confident expectation that this would be subsequently endorsed by the

parent Codex Commission. However, the best laid plans of Monsanto and

the FDA were aborted by an unexpected turn of events.

 

Bowing to growing pressure in 1998 by Canadian advocacy groups,

" dissident " government scientists and the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Health Canada convened expert committees on veterinary and human safety

under the auspices of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and

the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, respectively. Based on

conclusions on the adverse veterinary effects of rBGH, particularly an

increased incidence of mastitis, lameness and reproductive problems,

Health Canada reluctantly broke ranks with the U.S. in January 1999, and

issued a formal " notice of non- compliance " , disapproving future sales

of rBGH.

 

Meanwhile, the European Commission had commissioned two independent

committees of internationally recognized experts to undertake a

comprehensive review of the scientific literature on both the veterinary

and public health effects of rBGH. The veterinary committee fully

confirmed and extended the Canadian warnings and conclusions. The public

health committee confirmed earlier reports of excess levels of the

naturally occurring Insulin-like-Growth Factor One (IGF-1), including

its highly potent variants, in rBGH milk and concluded that these posed

major risks of cancer, particularly of the breast and prostate, besides

promoting the growth and invasiveness of cancer cells by inhibiting

their programmed self-destruction (apoptosis). Faced with this latest

well documented scientific evidence from both Canada and Europe, the

U.S. bowed to the inevitable and failed to challenge the Codex ruling in

support of the European moratorium.

 

It is now 15 years since Monsanto embarked on a series of large scale

veterinary trials on rBGH all over the U.S., and sold milk from these

trials to an uninformed and unsuspecting public with the full approval

of the FDA. Since then, Monsanto and the FDA, strongly supported by a

network of indentured university academics, aggressive lobbying by the

National Dairy Council and its well organized " hit squads " targeting

rBGH opponents, and an overwhelmingly uncritical media, have ignored or

trivialized substantial scientific evidence on the hazards of rBGH milk,

including a series of publications over the last decade in the

International Journal of Health Services, the most prestigious

international public health publication. Also ignored by the media have

been charges in 1981 by Congressman John Conyers (then Chairman of the

House Committee on Government Operations), on the basis of a leaked

confidential Monsanto study revealing serious pathology in cows injected

with rBGH, that " Monsanto and the FDA have chosen to suppress and

manipulate animal health test data in efforts to approve commercial use

of rBGH " .

 

These considerations reinforce growing concerns on the extreme

unreliability of Monsanto and other biotech industry claims of the

safety of genetically modified soy and other foods, especially in the

absence of comprehensive testing by independent scientific experts, who

should be funded by industry and not consumers.

 

Source: Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.

 

Contact: Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine at

the University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago, and

Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition, 312-996-2297 Web site:

http://www.preventcancer.com

 

 

--

 

 

Postscript to PR Newswire, August 18 Press Release on " Monsanto's

Genetically Modified Milk " .

 

August 23,1999

 

In response to the strong interest and supportive calls, apart from some

narrow legalistic questions, on this press release, I would like to

further clarify the Codex ruling.

 

Since 1995, the U.S. has pressured the Codex Commission to adopt a

standard, based on tolerances or Maximum Residue Limits, for residues of

rBGH in milk in attempts to prove its safety and promote its

international export. At its June 30 meeting, the Commission unanimously

rejected further consideration of this U.S. proposal, particularly in

light of the recent Canadian ban or " notice of non-compliance " , and of

recent reports to the European Commission by two committees of

independent international experts on the cancer and other risks of

Monsanto's milk. By such action, the Commission explicitly ruled that

national governments have absolute rights to decide whether or not to

permit imports of rBGH milk in view of well based public health

concerns. My August 18 press release is clearly consistent with these

events, notwithstanding the self -interested protestations by spokesmen

for the FDA, the highly flawed and unaccountable Joint Expert Committee

on Food Additives and Monsanto.

 

It may be further noted that the premier health and science U.K.

journalist George Monbiot in his July 22 article in The Guardian,

reported that " three weeks ago the European Union routed an American

attempt to force - - (Europe) to accept (rBGH milk) since safety

concerns about rBGH milk could not be ignored " . Monbiot also commented

on the " deluge of absolutely no coverage at all " with which this

unprecedented and momentous ruling against genetically modified food has

been greeted.

 

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D.

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discover

Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing & more. Check it out!