The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

the bovine growth hormone affair, part one 93compromised the usefulness of your reproductive data by the use of prostaglandinsand progesterone essays. It is not possible to evaluate the effectof bovine somatotropin on reproduction if concurrent use of reproductivehormones and diagnostic tests masks or otherwise alters the effect of thedrug.” Finally, with respect to the toxicological study conducted on rats, theCVM official was stinging; the rats studied were too few (seven), the durationof the study too short (seven days), and the doses ingested by the testanimals too small.This letter marked the beginning of Burroughs’s descent into hell. “SuddenlyI was put on the sidelines. I was denied access to the data I myself hadasked for, and finally the file was completely taken away from me. And then,on November 3, 1989, my boss showed me the door; it was all over for me.”“You were fired?”“Yes, for incompetence,” he said quietly.The veterinarian sued the FDA for unlawful dismissal and won at trial.The agency filed an appeal, but, according to Burroughs, it was finally obligedto rehire its employee. “I was shifted to the swine division. I didn’t know anythingabout pigs! At any moment I could have made a serious mistake, so Idecided to resign. It was a very dark period. I didn’t understand what washappening to me. I was ruined, because the litigation had cost a lot and Ididn’t have a job. Fortunately, there were my wife and two children.”“Were you threatened?”“You mean physically? I’d rather not talk about it. Psychologically, yes.During the appeal, Monsanto’s lawyers threatened to go after me if I revealedconfidential information about rBGH. That’s typical of Monsanto.”“Do you think the FDA was deceived by Monsanto?”“‘Deceived’ is not the right word; that would mean it happened withouttheir knowledge. No, the agency closed its eyes to disturbing data, becauseit wanted to protect the company’s interests by encouraging the marketing ofthe transgenic hormone as quickly as possible.”The Secret Data of Monsanto and the FDAAs Burroughs was battling for his career, a scientist known for his iconoclasticcourage incidentally came upon a subject that was to become one ofthe fights of his life. Samuel Epstein, now emeritus professor of environ-