It seems like the dairy industry may have a potential “tobacco litigation” scenario on its hands.

According to a statement released by Samuel Epstein, M.D., and the Cancer Prevention Coalition and the Organic Consumers Association, Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone (rGBH) administered to milk cows can pose serious health risks, both to the cows and to the consumers ingesting the resulting milk. And, allegedly, Monsanto has known it since 1987.

Confidential Monsanto files were leaked to Epstein revealing that tests of cows hyper-stimulated by repeated injections of rGBH suffered from pathological lesions, infertility and chronic mastitis. Monsanto’s rGBH is sold under the trade name Posilac, with a product label warning of mastitis.

Milk from rGBH-injected cows contains high levels of the inulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), which has been incriminated as a major cause of cancer. Moreover, a study of rGBH milk demonstrates that its fat levels are increased, particularly long-chain saturated fatty acids that are associated with increased heart disease. Monsanto’s study showed that adult rats injected with IGF-1 evidenced increased body and liver weights.

Ironically, all of this would have remained swept under the rug had the Hudson Institute not begun its marketing campaign, “Milk is Milk,” which drew Epstein’s statement revealing Monsanto’s prior knowledge.

It’s a sad state of affairs when a company’s ethics value consumer health lower on the priority scale than increased production and profitability. As we witnessed in the tobacco industry, such business practices eventually get their comeuppance.