The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

100 the world according to monsantoA Serious Public Health ProblemThere should be no mistake: the squabble over IGF-1 was more than a battleof experts, particularly in the United States, the third-largest consumerof milk in the world.* When you know in addition that the greatest milkdrinkers are children, then you can understand the concerns of the opponentsof rBGH. Beyond that, this affair was symptomatic of an evolution ofthe American administration that leaves one breathless and whose repercussionsalso call into question European practices: how many dubiousproducts have ended up on the market in the Old World through an approvalprocess that is as opaque as it is expeditious?The case of rBGH is simply devastating. “We have known for severaldecades,” Epstein explained to me, “that an elevated level of IGF-1 in thebody can cause a disorder called acromegaly or giantism. Those affectedhave a very short life expectancy and generally die of cancer when they’reabout thirty. There is nothing surprising about that: IGF-1 is a growth factorthat stimulates the proliferation of all cells, good and bad. That’s why rBGHrepresents a real public health danger. About sixty studies have demonstratedthat an elevated level of IGF-1 substantially increases the risks forbreast, colon, and prostate cancer.”He showed me the mass of publications carefully organized on the shelvesof his library. The oldest studies were from the 1960s; the FDA could nothave been unaware of them and ought, at a minimum, to have applied theprecautionary principle required by the Delaney amendment. The most recentwere published in the 1990s. One of them, conducted by a team of researchersat Harvard, followed a cohort of fifteen thousand men andconcluded that an elevated level of IGF-1 in the blood multiplied the risk ofprostate cancer by four. 10 Another study published in The Lancet revealedthat premenopausal women younger than fifty with an elevated level ofIGF-1 had seven times more likelihood of developing breast cancer thanthose with normal levels. 11“Look,” Hardin told me, “I recently published two studies that confirmour concerns. The first was conducted by Paris Reidhead, who went through*In 2004, annual consumption was 89.1 liters per person. If other dairy products are added (yogurt,ice cream, cheese, and so on), the figure rises to 270 liters per year.