Sunday, June 21 4:00 PM ET
CHICAGO, June 21 /PRNewswire/ --
The following was released today by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor
Environmental Medicine, University of Illinois School of Public
Health and Chairman of Cancer Prevention Coalition:
As reported in a May 9 article in The Lancet,
women with a relatively small increase in blood levels of the naturally
occurring growth hormone Insulin-like Growth Factor I (IGF-1) are
up to seven times more likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer
than women with lower levels. Based on those results, the report
concluded that the risks of elevated IGF-1 blood levels are among
the leading known risk factors for breast cancer, and are exceeded
only by a strong family history or unusual mammographic abnormalities.
Apart from breast cancer, an accompanying editorial warned that
elevated IGF-1 levels are also associated with greater than any
known risk factors for other major cancers, particularly colon
and prostate.
This latest evidence is not unexpected.
Higher rates of breast, besides colon, cancer have been reported
in patients with gigantism (acromegaly) who have high IGF-1 blood
levels. Other studies have also shown that administration of IGF-1
to elderly female primates causes marked breast enlargement and
proliferation of breast tissue, that IGF-1 is a potent stimulator
of human breast cells in tissue culture, that it blocks the programmed
self-destruction of breast cancer cells, and enhances their growth
and invasiveness.
These various reports, however, appear
surprisingly unaware of the fact that the entire U.S. population
is now exposed to high levels of IGF-1 in dairy products. In February
1995, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of unlabelled
milk from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered
bovine growth hormone, rBGH, to increase milk production. As detailed
in a January 1996 report in the prestigious International Journal
of Health Services, rBGH milk differs from natural milk chemically,
nutritionally, pharmacologically and immunologically, besides being
contaminated with pus and antibiotics resulting from mastitis induced
by the biotech hormone. More critically, rBGH milk is supercharged
with high levels of abnormally potent IGF-1, up 10 times the levels
in natural milk and over 10 times more potent. IGF-1 resists pasteurization,
digestion by stomach enzymes, and is well absorbed across the intestinal
wall. Still unpublished 1987 Monsanto tests, disclosed by FDA in
summary form in 1990, revealed that statistically significant growth
stimulating effects were induced in organs of adult rats by feeding
IGF-1 at low dose levels for only two weeks. Drinking rBGH milk
would thus be expected to significantly increase IGF-1 blood levels
and consequently to increase risks of developing breast cancer
and promoting its invasiveness.
Faced with escalating rates of breast,
besides colon, prostate and other avoidable cancers, FDA should
withdraw its approval of rBGH milk, whose sale benefits only Monsanto
while posing major public health risks for the entire U.S. population.
A Congressional investigation of FDA's abdication of responsibility
is well overdue.
Cancer Prevention Coalition
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
A Monsanto
official told the New York Times, October 25, 1998, that the
corporation should not have to take responsibility for the safety
of its food products. "Monsanto should not have to
vouchsafe the safety of biotech food," said Phil Angell,
Monsanto's director of corporate communications. "Our interest
is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety
is the FDA's job."
For further information on Monsanto,
visit the following:
http://www.ethicalinvesting.com/monsanto/bgh.shtml
http://purefood.org/rbghlink.html
I personally believe that Monsanto
poses an extreme threat to the health and viability of life on
Planet Earth. Many years ago, I urged a boycott of its products.
I would today reiterate my concerns and offer some alternatives
that are safer and more conscious.
For milk alternatives, consider milk
that is labeled as purely organic or rGBH-free or milk substitutes
such as rice milk, almond milk, oat milk, and soy milk, but again,
make sure these alternatives are organic and not made from genetically
engineered crops.
The following web site maintains
a list of organic milk products:
http://organicconsumers.org/rbgh/rbghlist.cfm
For suggestions on boycotting Monsanto products,
visit:
http://www.soaringspiritwithtears.com/boycott/boycottmonsanto.html
