[12] in peace2
how monsanto got bovine growth hormone through FDA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (F. AuYeung)
Tue Dec 14 14:39:44 1999
Message-Id: <199912141939.OAA25976@biohazard-cafe.mit.edu>
To: nork@MIT.EDU, alsmith@MIT.EDU, unger@MIT.EDU, tobi@MIT.EDU, cmcd@MIT.EDU,
liberty@MIT.EDU
cc: peace2@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 14:39:36 -0500
From: "F. AuYeung" <auyeung@MIT.EDU>
a particularly upsetting article on how monsanto pushed and bribed its
way through the FDA and government to get its untested/ at times proven
outright dangerous products on the market that threaten people's lives
for profit.
if the FDA cannot be the counter-force to fucked up corporations, and
documents, testimonies, and scientific tests are sealed from the public,
who can counteract the evil intentions of a few decision makers at such
corporations?
this is an important documentation of the mess that the American public
has to tolerate. please take the time to read through it and forward
it to others so that we can begin to build an awareness against such
practices. thanks,
felix
------- Forwarded Message
To: vsg@mit.edu
Subject: Robert Cohen's FDA testimony on rBGH labeling
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 09:43:12 -0500
From: Laura Christine Dilley <elsiedee@MIT.EDU>
- ------- Forwarded Message
From: RKaynor@aol.com
Message-Id: <0.86517281.258782a8@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 06:23:20 EST
Subject: Damning testimony
From Richard Wolfson's web site,
http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
(Slightly edited. If you read no other posts, please read this
one. Robert Cohen's story played a big role in my lobbying the
Mass. legislature in 1997 in support of an rBGH labeling bill.
- - --Dick)
FDA Testimony by Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen was the final speaker on an FDA panel in
Washington on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999. Some of you may have
seen his speech on C-Span. Members of the panel included
Mildred Cody of the American Dietetic Association; Mario Teisl,
a professor of economics at the University of Maine; John Gray,
president of the International Food Service Distributors
Association; Kendal Keith, president of the National Grain &
Feed Association; and Richard Caplan, an environmental
advocate with the US Public Interest Research Group.
Cohen's Testimony:
Hi everybody, I've got to apologize first - I don't have a
prepared statement like the other panel members. All I'm going
to give here is some facts.
I have a copy of the Federal Register. It says here advertising
this meeting:
"FDA is not aware of information that will distinguish
genetically engineered food as a class from other foods."
[Mr. Cohen turns and addresses panel members.] I'm going to
give you some information today, guys.
The greatest controversy in FDA history was the approval
process for Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth
hormone. We shouldn't be here today! We should not be in this
room and I shouldn't be here because, in 1994, Congress HAD A
BILL that was going to require mandatory labeling of all foods
that were influenced by genetic engineering. I got my
Congresswoman to co-sponsor that bill - 181 congresspeople
co-sponsored that bill, and you know what? I learned how
Congress works that year because in 6 months they stalled the
bill -- 12 members of the Dairy Livestock & Poultry Committee
- - -- they stalled the bill until the 1994 session of Congress
expired and the bill died.
I was so upset, I investigated these 12 men and found that
collectively they took $711,000 in PAC money from companies
with dairy interests, and four of the members of the
committee took money directly from Monsanto.
Now we've got a lot of political intrigue and some real science
here ... We've got a combination of John Grisham and ... Stephen
King.
Nikita Khrushchev said that what the scientists have in their
briefcase is terrifying [Mr. Cohen then opened his briefcase and
pulled out a stack of papers] -- and I've got some interesting
things in my briefcase to share with you today.
When Monsanto made their genetically engineered bovine
growth hormone, they noticed a couple of problems right
towards the end -- right before approval. They noticed that
laboratory animals were getting cancer, and they noticed that
cows were getting mastitis, ulcers in their udders. They were
putting more pus and bacteria into the milk. So Monsanto
arranged --
We've heard from Dr. Maryanski this morning, and Dr. Maryanski
talked about the Pure Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act but what he
didn't tell you was that in 1958, Robert Delaney, a congressman
from New York, added the Delaney Amendment which was
named after him. The Delaney Amendment stated that if a food
additive caused cancer, it was not to be approved - a pretty
good law - right?
- - -- Monsanto got their attorney, Michael Taylor from the firm of
King & Spalding --By the way, when they started in 1979, they
groomed their attorney who is now in the Supreme Court,
Clarence Thomas, from the same law firm--
Anyway, Monsanto's attorney, Michael Taylor, wrote and
minimized the Delaney Amendment- he wrote a scientific paper
that was published in the "Journal of Toxicology". Lawyers
- - --they write in law review journals, but this lawyer wrote in
the "Journal of Toxicology": "a De-Minumus interpretation of
the Delaney Amendment" became the new protocol, the new
standard operating procedure at FDA. They minimized cancer.
Michael Taylor was hired by the Food & Drug Administration,
and became the second most powerful man there. Monsanto's
attorney -- he wrote the standard operating procedure. In other
words, if you see cancer, ignore it. Margaret Miller and Suzanne
Sechen, Monsanto's scientists, were hired by the FDA to review
Monsanto's own research.
Margaret Miller knew cows were getting mastitis. The first
week at the FDA, December 3, 1989, she was given broad
power, and here's an effect of genetic engineering nobody has
considered. She knew cows were getting sick from the
genetically engineered hormone. She changed the amount of
antibiotics that farmers could have in their milk. She changed
it from 1 part per 100 million to 1 part per million - this is a
fact! She increased it by 100 times.
There is a hero of mine in the audience, Michael Hansen from
Consumer's Union. Consumer's Union tested milk in the New
York metropolitan area and found the presence of 52 different
antibiotics in milk samples.
FDA published on August 24, 1990, the first time ever in a
peer-reviewed journal, in "Science"... They published a review
of bovine somatotropin --bGH-- the genetically engineered cow
hormone. And in that review, there were seven tables of data.
Five of those tables came from one study authored by Richard,
Odaglia and Deslex. This is the famous "90-Day Study" [that has
been used as "evidence" that rBGH is safe]. Guess what? This
was actually a study lasting for 180 days and when I first
heard about this in 1994, I filed a Freedom of Information Act
Request for that study -- because I saw from the data that the
average spleen of a lab animal increased 46%.
I called FDA and spoke with Dick Teske. I said, "46%? You said
there were no biological effects!"
He said, "That's not statistically significant."
I said, "Well, let me see the raw data."
He said, "It's a trade secret."
I called Monsanto, they laughed at me. They said, "It's a trade
secret and you will never see it."
I'm smart, I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request, but I
didn't realize you can't find out the study. I went to Federal
Court, I said, "Your honor - spleen increase of 46%, that's
leukemia in 90 days!"
I met with FDA on April 21, 1995, and found out that this was
actually a 180-day study.
In Canada, they had this study. I have a letter here [Mr. Cohen
reaches into his briefcase], an internal memorandum:
"This is to advise you that the copies of reports, letters, etc.
for drug submissions have been stolen from my files."
This was stolen from a scientist's file in Canada. They stole
the second half of the "90-Day Study."
We've got real science here. I'm going to talk briefly about the
real science because when Monsanto made this hormone, they
had to tell the FDA -- they had to draw a chart of every amino
acid, the 191 amino acids. And when FDA wrote their paper in
"Science" magazine they wrote that one amino acid changed --
it was a different hormone than the naturally occurring one.
At the same time, somebody hired C. Everett Koop to come and
say that genetically engineered milk and the good old
wholesome milk is indistinguishable. Well, it wasn't.
Something happened to the hormone that Monsanto made. The
FDA said that there was one change in the endamino acid. It
became epsilon-N-acetyllysine. FDA had written if there was a
change in the middle of the protein, there could be disastrous
results. They cited Jerome Moore. I got Jerome Moore's paper. It
said if there is a protein change in the middle, there could be
Alzheimer's or sickle cell anemia or diabetes.
Four months after the hormone was approved, one of Monsanto's
scientists, Bernard Violand, published in the July 3, 1994 issue
of the journal "Protein Science" evidence that Monsanto made a
mistake.
Oops! ... Monsanto created a freak amino acid. Monsanto
admitted it but didn't tell the FDA. [He turns and points to the
other panel members.]
Gentlemen, the hormone that's on the market today is different
than the one you [FDA] tested for seven years. Monsanto spent
$500 million, submitted 55,000 pages of information to you,
learned late in the process that they created a freak amino acid
- - -- that's what was tested on laboratory animals and it didn't
matter because FDA said to Monsanto, you know something? It's
safe because when you pasteurize milk, you destroy the
hormone.
They performed this research up in Guelph, Ontario, by Paul
Groenewegan, and I've got his study. [He again turns to address
the panel members.] To this day, FDA thinks --it's on your web
page-- that 90% of the bovine growth hormone is destroyed by
pasteurization. But what Paul Groenewegan did --working with
Ted Elasser and Brian McBride, two Monsanto scientists-- was
he pasteurized milk for 30 minutes at 162oF, and when I read
that, I said, wait a second, milk is pasteurized for 15 seconds
at that temperature -- not 30 minutes. They intentionally tried
to destroy the hormone. They only destroyed 19% of it.
Somebody lied. And at that moment, FDA said to Monsanto:
"Because you destroy it by pasteurization, you don't have to do
further toxicology studies. You don't have to develop a test for
this hormone in milk. It's now safe to drink."
They [FDA] developed a zero day withdrawal [period for dairy
cows that had been given the hormone]. They determined it was
safe to drink.
We have a lot of political intrigue here. We have an interesting
situation where people have said that a revolving door policy
exists at FDA. I mean, where is the ex-FDA commissioner?
Guess who he is working for? He is working for Monsanto. Bob
Dole ran for President, his chief of staff was Donald Rumsfeld
(ex-president of Searle, owned by Monsanto). I have one last
comment
[At this point, the moderator interrupts and tells Mr. Cohen to
wrap it up and to address labeling.]
I know, but we have a labeling issue here -- we have a right to
know. I have listened to comments about "multi-faceted
educational effort that we need" -- that's called brainwashing!
I don't want a "multi-faceted educational effort" -- I want a
double helical structure [audience applauds] on a piece of food
that I'm going to buy in the supermarket because I have a right
to know.
Because the bottom line is - mistakes were made and when I
hear from the American Dietetic Association, [he turns to a
member of the American Dietitic Association who had spoken
against labeling], I want to remind you that Monsanto gave you
$100,000 to set up a toll-free hotline about the bovine growth
hormone.
Mistakes were made! We've got political intrigue here and the
bottom line is we have a right to know what we are eating.
Thank you. [Applause]
=end=
- ------- End of Forwarded Message
------- End of Forwarded Message
and where is the criminal accountibility for the 12 men on the congressional
committee, the collaborating lawyers and scientiests, and of course, the
management of the offending corporation!?
felix
