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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 labeled. About 25 percent of the milk sold in the U.S. is made from cows treated with BGH.
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 unlabelled 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 Newswife via NewsEdge Corp., June 21, 1998.