The Effect of GOT (Genetically Engineered) Dairy Products on the Growth of Cancer

Blowing the Whistle on rBGH:Dairy Farmers and Monsanto employees Speak Out on rBGH in milk/dairy products

(From a Book by Sam Epstein)

I soon discovered that as early as 1985, Monsanto had become aware of possible negative consumer reactions to the word hormone, and had attempted to change the name rBGH to the more neutral bovine somatotropin, rBST. However, this was too late in the U.S. as the term rBGH had already become well-established in the promotional and scientific literature. This was not, however, the case in Canada and Europe where the name rBST was readily accepted and so remains.
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I first checked all major public health and medical journals and found no reference to any studies on possible human risks from rBGH milk. I then reviewed the 1987 and 1988 supplements of the Journal of Dairy Science...  By the time I had completed reviewing these trials, it had become clear that Monsanto, and the other rBGH industries... had not only monopolized the research field and publications on rBGH but had also suppressed or manipulated evidence on its adverse veterinary effects. The FDA’s complicity was evidenced by their explicit assurances on the safety of rBGH milk, which was falsely claimed to be identical with natural milk. The FDA’s complicity was compounded by its decision to allow the sale of rBGH milk, since the inception of large scale milk production trials in 1985, to the unknowing public in the total absence of any questions, let alone studies, on human safety, particularly routine toxicological tests on rBGH milk and its altered ingredients and contaminants.

Of particular concern in this connection was evidence from sparse publications, unrelated to the industry trials, of elevated levels in rBGH milk of IGF-1, a natural growth factor whose levels are under control of natural growth hormones, whether bovine (BGH) or human (HGH). This raised a red flag in relation to cancer risks, particularly as converging lines of evidence in the endocrinology and cancer literature had already incriminated IGF-1 as a critical factor in the promotion of breast cancer.
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While awaiting publication, a large box with no sender’s name or identification arrived at my office towards the end of October. To my amazement, it contained an extensive set of “Company Confidential” Monsanto files, presumably leaked from the FDA. These files provided details on a wide range of critical adverse health effects, all at striking variance with explicit contrary industry and FDA assurances, as detailed in my article co-authored by Peter Hardin in The Milkweed, January, 1990. These effects included: high levels of rBGH in treated milk; serious pathology in rBGH injected cows; a high incidence of reproductive failure; and the use of illegal drugs to treat mastitis and other adverse effects in rBGH cows.
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It is of particular interest to emphasize that rBGH milk is a genetically engineered (GE) food, a fact not generally recognized by the public, let alone most citizen and consumer advocacy groups that have played such a critical role in the fight against rBGH, and also such national and international groups fighting against non-milk GE foods and ingredients...

So what is the bottom line of this monograph’s saga? First and foremost, shoppers should avoid, if not boycott, all milk and dairy products in favor of those which are certified as rBGH-free. Supermarkets failing to sell these safer products should be pressured by individual consumers and consumer groups to make them freely available. Second, Monsanto’s and the FDA’s reckless two-decade track record of frank manipulation and suppression of health and safety data on GE milk sends the strongest possible warning to reject similar “trust assurances” on the safety of non-milk GE foods -- soy, corn, and other whole and processed foods and ingredients. These concerns are compounded by the total absence of any long-term safety testing of these GE products by Monsanto and other biotech industries, as is the case with rBGH, and emerging independent evidence on their grave and possibly irreversible public health and environmental hazards.