Biotech Milk Linked To Cancer

Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in non-smoking men, and will afflict an estimated 185,000 men in 1998, killing 39,000. The strongest known risk factor for prostate cancer is high levels of a naturally occurring hormone called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1). Men with high blood levels of this hormone are over four times more likely to develop full-blown prostate cancer than are men with lower levels. Researchers believe that reducing high levels of IGF-1 can probably help prevent prostate cancer.

The fact that too much IGF-1 may lead to cancer has at least two interesting health-care implications: One, doctors sometimes administer growth hormones to elderly patients to slow aging, which also increases IGF-1 blood levels. Two, the U.S. population may be exposed to high levels of IGF-1 because of bioengineering in dairy farming.

In 1995, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of unlabelled milk from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, rBGH. Farmers use this hormone to increase their cows' milk production, thereby dramatically increasing their profits. Researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, claim that milk from rBGH-treated cows is nutritionally, immunologically and chemically different from natural milk, besides being contaminated with antibiotics and pus. rBGH milk also has ten times more IGF-1 than natural milk, and the hormone resists destruction through pasteurization or the action of human digestion.

Some experts believe that drinking rBGH-milk may increase the risk of prostate cancer, and promote growth of existing cancers. IGF-1 is also linked to breast, colon and childhood cancers.

[Editor: Having followed the "food disparagement" suit brought by the beef producers against Oprah Winfry, we wish to make it clear to our readers that we trust rBGH milk to be 100% safe. We believe that neither Monsanto, nor any other large corporation, would ever do anything to endanger human health for mere profit. Moreover, we also have complete confidence in the FDA's ability to determine the safety of all our foods, especially unnatural ones, whose sole purpose is to increase profits and, thus, help make America strong.]  Based on information in: PRNewswire, 3-15-98, Science, 1-23-98