Ban Milk Products with Cow Growth Hormone.

• Position: European Union - Brief Article

EU Scientific Experts Point to Human Health Risks from rBST Use

The Greens in the European Parliament Press Release Brussels, April 16, 1999

The Green Group is calling for all milk and dairy products produced from cows treated with the controversial genetically engineered growth hormone, bovine somatotropin (rBST, also called BGH), to be banned in the EU and for rBST to be taken off the market word-wide. The UN body Codex Alimentarius, which acts as food safety advisor to the WTO, is to discuss a report on rBST in Paris. Greens are calling on the European Union delegates to demand a complete withdrawal of all product approvals.

The use and sale of the rBST drug, produced by Monsanto and Eli Lilly, was originally banned in Member States in 1990. This ban expires at the end of 1999 but is likely to be extended in the light of clear evidence of serious adverse impacts on the welfare of the cow, notably increased foot problems, mastitis and injection site swellings. Repeated injections of the genetically modified hormone are given to boost milk yield artificially by up to 15%.

The Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures relating to Public Health (SCVM) has now reported to the European Commission that there is a possible "association between circulating IGF-1 levels and an increased relative risk of breast and prostate cancer." Levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), which also occurs naturally in milk, are substantially increased in milk from rBST-treated cows.

Commenting on the findings, Hiltrud Breyer MEP (Germany) said "This confirms what we have said repeatedly over the last few years--this product of genetic engineering is potentially dangerous to humans as well as to animals. Not only should it not be used to inject dairy cows, but all milk and dairy products derived from rBST...