Harvard Prof Claims Misuse of Data To Push Anti-Milk Agenda
By John Rossomando
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 23, 2002

(CNSNews.com) - A Harvard professor is denouncing efforts by an animal rights group to show a link between milk and cancer, accusing it of misrepresenting his research.

The group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is using the research of Dr. Daniel Cramer, M.D. to support a recent ad campaign that claims milk and dairy products contribute to "obesity, ear infections, constipation, respiratory problems, heart disease, and some cancers."

But Cramer said those conclusions are false and that his research never supported such claims.

"We don't have the scientific proof to say that it has definitely been linked to cancer," said Cramer, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

"I think that particular group has their own sort of agenda, of not wanting milk production around, and cows to be utilized," said Cramer. "Their agenda is that [they] don't want ... cows exploited or they want everybody to be vegetarians," Cramer said.

When confronted with Cramer's concerns, PCRM refused to comment. "We have nothing to say about this," PCRM Communications Director Simon Chaitowitz said.

Cramer concedes there is some circumstantial evidence linking lactose, a primary component of milk, to ovarian cancer in mice. But he also said the facts do not support PCRM's claims that a definite link exists between milk and cancer.

This isn't the first time researchers have contradicted claims made by PCRM.

In October, PCRM issued a statement touting a study published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which theorized that a link exists between milk and prostate cancer.

"Given how common and deadly prostate cancer is and the many healthy alternatives to milk, there is every reason for men to avoid cow's milk altogether," said PCRM President Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D. in a statement.

But Dr. June M. Chan, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of California-San Francisco who led the research team, said the study should not dissuade anyone from drinking milk.

"We do not recommend that people change their diets or stop drinking milk," Chan told CNSNews.com. "It is up to people to decide what they will do following this study."

Chan said the study was not trying to prove a direct link between milk and prostate cancer, but rather was investigating the possibility of a link. She said her study was a theoretical statement and not absolute.

Not only have PCRM statements contradicted the research on which they're supposedly based, the group sometimes appears to contradict itself.

For instance, assertions by PCRM of a link between milk and cancer in humans have been based, in part, on studies including animals.

But in a Sept. 20, 2001 letter to a Japanese company advocating PCRM's position on medical testing, Barnard wrote that applying the results of research on animals to humans is "problematic," and noted that some substances given to laboratory rodents "in extremely high doses ... are harmless to humans at normal levels."

The PCRM's credibility as a medical organization has also come under scrutiny from the American Medical Association, which has issued formal statements condemning PCRM for its efforts to ban animal testing.

"Our AMA registers strong objections to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for implying that physicians who support the use of animals in biomedical research are irresponsible, for misrepresenting the critical role animals play in research and teaching, and for obscuring the overwhelming support for such research which exists among practicing physicians in the United States," the American Medical Association said in a policy statement.

The AMA further stated its intent to fight to preserve animal testing against the "fallacious claim about biomedical research being made by animal rights groups and especially those of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine."

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