Menu

US hormone beef could cause cancer EU

- 04 May 1999
>More in


04 May 1999

US hormone beef could cause cancer — EU

By FWi staff

EUROPEAN Union scientists have warned that consumers who eat hormone-treated beef imported from the USA could be at risk of developing cancer.

The Scientific Committee for Veterinary Measures relating to Public Health have also linked the beef to developmental, neurobiological, and genotoxic defects.

There is substantial evidence that the natural hormone 17ß-oestradiol, used as a growth promoter, is a carcinogen, concluded a statement from the scientists.

“Even small additional doses of residues of this hormone in meat arising from its use as a growth promoter in cattle has an inherent risk of causing cancer,” it said.

Two reports, including an assessment of risks of hormonal growth promoters in cattle have been made public and sent to the USA and Canada for comments.

The European Commission believes consumers in those two countries – where the rules over hormone residues are less stringent than here – are at increased risk.

The findings could have also a serious effect on the transatlantic relationship between the EU and USA, which is already under strain because of the banana dispute.

Brussels has refused to bow to demands from Washington that it lift its decade-old embargo on hormone-treated beef imports from the US.

The World Trade Organisation ruled in February that the EU must lift the ban by 13 May unless it was able to prove that the meat is harmful.

Last week, the EU announced it was to widen the terms of the embargo from 15 June to include hormone-free meat imported from the USA.

The Standing Veterinary Committee ordered that ban after scientific tests showed that 12% of supposedly hormone-free US beef contained hormone residues.

See more