Long before bovine spongiform encephalopathy disrupted Canada’s beef exports, the cattle industry has been coping with a ban on its products by one of the biggest markets in the world.
Since 1988 the European Union has refused to accept beef or beef products from cattle treated with growth promoting hormones. Scientists there believe the hormones pose a potential health risk to consumers.
A recent study sponsored by the United States National Cancer Institute lends credence to those concerns. The research was conducted by the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Preliminary results suggest that zeranol stimulates the growth of human breast cancer cells. Zeranol is the active ingredient in promoters such as Ralgro, which is used extensively on American and Canadian cattle.
There is no evidence to prove that eating beef in any amount is dangerous, but laboratory results suggest zeranol appears to enhance the effects of estrogen.
“We think this may be important because some studies suggest that the more unopposed estrogen a women is exposed to over her lifetime, the greater her chances of developing breast cancer,” said study co-leader Young Lin.
But he also said what happens in the controlled setting of a laboratory might not happen in the more complex setting of the human body.
A spokesperson for the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States said the study supports Europe’s stance on growth promoters.
“If it stands up to peer scrutiny it would certainly be very helpful,” said Maeve O’Beirne.
Calvin Booker, a veterinarian with Feedlot Health Management Services in Okotoks, Alta., said producers have been giving growth promotants to their animals for 35 years.
He said although the study used levels of zeranol 30 times lower than what North American governments have approved for animal use, the levels of the drug found in beef are thousands of times lower than what has been deemed safe.
Booker said the European ban has more to do with non-tariff trade barriers than it does with science.
The assistant manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association said preliminary findings from one study are not going to change Canada’s policy on growth promoters.
“Most scientists would agree that’s not enough to make any immediate change in policy,” said Rob McNabb, adding that Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have extensively reviewed hormone treatments and concluded they do not present a risk to those consuming beef or beef products.
McNabb also pointed out that in 1997, the World Trade Organization ruled that the EU hormone ban was unfounded, as did the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization.
O’Beirne said the European Commission has completed 17 studies to address the “research gaps” identified by the WTO. Those studies confirmed the commission’s original stance that all six hormones used in beef production as growth promoters pose a risk to consumers and that one of them (17-beta-oestradiol) is a proven carcinogen.
Legislation calling for a definitive ban on the use of 17-beta-oestradiol and provisional bans on five other growth promoters will soon be before European Parliament for its second reading. Once approved and put in place the new bans should conform to WTO obligations, said O’Beirne.
Meanwhile, researchers at Ohio State University have started work on a second zeranol study to compare beef consumption with elevated levels of the hormone in women’s blood, urine and breast tissue. They want to determine whether long-term, low-level exposure to zeranol adds to the risk of developing breast cancer.
