Bovine growth hormone

BOVINE GROWTH HORMONE
Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) is a genetically engineered hormone fed to dairy cows to boost milk production. While the FDA approved its use in 1995, health and consumer groups have expressed concerns about its safety and demanded that it be labelled.
Monsanto, the manufacturer, has sued natural foods stores and companies that label its products BGH-free, claiming that such labels unfairly disparage a legal product. A compromise on the issue of labeling was reached for the first time in 1997 when organic food companies in Illinois and Ben & Jerry's ice cream settled a lawsuit against the state in which natural foods suppliers won the right to explain to consumers that they oppose recombinant BGH and would not use it on their products, though the FDA has found no significant difference between BGH-treated and untreated cows.
About 25 percent of the milk sold in the U.S. . is made from cows treated with BGH.

• BGH and Breast Cancer - According to a recent study in Lancet, women with a relatively small increase in blood levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor I (IGF-1), a naturally occurring grown hormone, are up to seven times more likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women with lower levels.
Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, an environmental cancer specialist at the University of Illinois, explained that BGH 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, he stated.
"The entire nation is currently being subjected to an experiment involving large-scale adulteration of an age-old dietary staple by a poorly characterized and unlabeled biotechnology product. Disturbingly, this experiment benefits only a very small segment of the agriculture industry while providing no matching benefits to consumers. Even more disturbingly it poses major potential public health risks for the entire U.S. population."
Source: S. Epstein, "Unlabeled Milk from Cows Treated with Biosynthetic Growth Hormones: A Case of Regulatory Abdication," International Journal of Health Services 26(1): 173-185, 1996; PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corp., June 21, 1998.

• BGH Increases Cancer Risk - In a review of the evidence linking dairy and breast cancer, researchers with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine contend that the FDA’s approval of BHG, genetically engineered bovine growth hormone, was based on faulty assumptions and studies. While the FDA concluded that it did not differ chemically from natural BGH, studies indicate that BGH differs by 1 to 9 animao acids. The FDA also assumed that BGH is not orally active in humans and that its activity is destroyed during pasteurization, both of which have been contradicted by subsequent studies.
“A substantial body of medical evidence provides possible mechanisms by which milk may promote breast cancer,” the physicians conclude. “(1) IGF-1 and estrogens are present in all milk in micromolar to nanomolar concentrations; (2) IGF-1 is not destroyed during milk pasteurization; (3) IGF-1 has been shown to stimulate or initiate growth of human breast cancer cells; (4) IGF-1 acts synergistically with estrogens, which increase its effects even at nonomolar concentrations; (5) BGH increases IGF-1 levels in milk; (6) IGF-1 and BGH can possibly be absorbed intact from the GI gract; (7) IGF-1 can exert local mitogenic tissue effects and be cleaved to exert local mitogenic tissue effects.” While BGH has not been considered to be a danger because subsequent increase in govine milk IGF-1 levels are within the “normal range” based on untreated cows and human breast milk, the physicians assert that the “normal range” could be carcinogenic when milk is ingested regularly over a lifetime. They conclude that milk produced with BGH may increase the risk of cancer.
Source: J. L. Outwater et al., “Dairy Products and Breast Cancer: The IGF-1, Estrogen, and BGH Hypothesis,” Medical Hypotheses 48:453-61, 1997.

• BGH Effects on Cows - Injecting BGH reduces a cow's life expectancy and increases the risk of disease, contributing to increased use of antibiotics. Increased mastitis results in increased secretion of white blood cells or pus into the milk.
Source: J. Fagan, Genetic Engineering: The Hazards, MIU Press, 1995, p. 113.

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