Article 492 of sci.agriculture:
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From: Tommy the Tourist <nobody@soda.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.medicine,sci.agriculture
Subject: Cancer Risk
Date: 22 Mar 1994 09:27:24 GMT
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Reproduced without permission.
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The Los Angeles Times
Sunday, March 20, 1994, p.M5
Commentary
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 Biotech: There are well-founded suspicions about milk from cows
          treated with the new growth hormone.
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A NEEDLESS NEW RISK OF BREAST CANCER
By Samuel S. Epstein
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dr. Samuel S. Epstein is professor of occupational and environmental   |
| medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and     |
| chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition Inc.  The concerns in this |
| article have been sent to the FDA and the National Cancer Institute.   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
    The Food and Drug Administration recently warned dairy producers,
distributors and retailers against "hormone-free" labels on milk from cows
that have not been given the biotech milk-production stimulant known as
recombinant bovine growth hormone.  The FDA states that such labeling
could be "false or misleading" under federal law, as there is "no
significant difference between milk from treated and untreated cows." 
Monsanto, maker of the hormone, is already suing one large Midwest milk
producer for using the label.

    The confusing FDA guidelines were, according to the consumer
publication Daily Citizen, written by Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor,
a former counsel for Monsanto and a biotech umbrella organization.  The
guidelines are scientifically flawed and reckless and reflect flagrant
disregard of consumers' right to know.  Furthermore, the FDA ignores
evidence linking milk from treated cows with increased risk of breast
cancer.  The concerns, based on published research:

* The biotech hormone induces a marked and sustained increase in levels
  of insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1, in cow's milk.

* IGF-1 regulates cell growth, division and differentiation, particularly
  in infants.  While human and normal bovine IGF-1 are identical, they are
  largely bound to protein and thus probably less biologically active than
  the unbound IGF-1 in treated milk.

* IGF-1 is not destroyed by pasteurization or digestion and is readily
  absorbed across the intestinal wall.  In a 1990 FDA publication
  disclosing toxicity tests conducted by Monsanto, feeding the hormone
  (trade name Posilac) to mature rats for only two weeks resulted in   
  statistically significant increases in body and liver weights and bone   
  length.  These effects were seen at a small fraction of injected doses
  given to control rats.  But by gerrymandering these explicit data, the
  FDA alleged that IGF-1 "lacks oral toxicity."

  Neither the FDA nor Monsanto has investigated the effects of long-term
  feeding of IGF-1 and treated milk on growth or on more sensitive sub-
  cellular effects in infant rats or infants of any other species.

* Cows injected with the biotech hormone show heavy localization of IGF-1
  in breast (udder) epithelial cells; this does not occur in untreated
  cows.

* IGF-1 induces rapid division and multiplication of normal human breast
  epithelial cells in tissue cultures.

* It is highly likely that IGF-1 promotes transformation of normal breast
  epithelium to breast cancer.

* IGF-1 maintains the malignancy of human breast-cancer cells, including
  their invasiveness and ability to spread to distant organs.

* The breast tissues of female fetuses and infants are sensitive to
  hormonal influences.  Imprinting by IGF-1 may increase future breast-
  cancer risks and sensitivity of the breast to subsequent unrelated
  risks such as mammography and the carcinogenic and estrogen-like
  effects of pesticide residues in food, particularly in pre-menopausal
  women.

    These concerns are not new.  In a 1989 letter to the FDA, I warned
that the effects of IGF-1 "could include premature growth stimulation in
infants, [breast enlargement] in young children and breast cancer in adult
females."  More recently, the Council on Scientific Affairs of the
American Medical Assn. stated: "Further studies will be required to
determine whether the ingestion of higher than normal concentrations of
bovine insulin-like growth factor is safe for children, adolescents and
adults."  The opposite of "further study" is uncontrolled, unlabeled sales
of treated milk to unwitting consumers.

    Apart from risks of breast cancer and other IGF-1 effects, the FDA and
industry have downplayed additional differences between hormonal and non-
hormonal milk.  The FDA-approved label insert for Posilac, a pamphlet that
only dairy farmers see, admits that its "use is associated with increased
frequency of use of medication in cows for mastitis and other health
problems."  Monsanto's own data further show up to an 80% incidence of
mastitis, an udder infection, in hormone-treated cattle and resulting
contamination of milk with statistically significant levels of pus; this
will necessitate virtually routine use of antibiotics, with attendant
risks of allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance.

Congress should insist that, at the very least, the FDA immediately revoke
its restrictions on labeling of milk from untreated cows. More prudently,
it should ban the use of these hormones.

<end>

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