GM food being tested on children.

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British scientists condemn using children in GM food trials as unacceptableBy Sean PoulterDaily Mail, 17 February 2009http://tiny.cc/YsvkZChildren

have been used as 'lab rats' in GM rice trials that were carried out in

breach of ethics rules drawn up in response to the medical crimes of

Nazi Germany, it is claimed.Youngsters aged 6-10 were fed

so-called Golden Rice, which has been modified to contain enhanced

levels of beta carotene or vitamin A.The rice is being

developed to combat Vitamin A deficiency, which is linked to damage to

the sight, poor brain development and immune system failure.However high consumption can also have harmful toxic effects and cause birth defects.Critics

are furious that the GM rice was not put through animal feeding trials

to ensure it was safe before being given to children.The

decision to use the children has been condemned as 'completely

unacceptable' by a group of 22 scientists - all GM critics - from

Britain and around the world.They claim it is indicative of

moves by the biotech lobby, led by the USA and biotech firms, to force

GM food into the mouths of the world without proper assessment.The project was financed and run through the US National Institutes of Health and involved children in China and America.The scientists have written an open letter to the team behind the experiments, condemning the way they were conducted.It

states: 'We are writing to express our shock and unequivocal

denunciation of the experiments being conducted by your colleagues

which involve the feeding of genetically modified Golden Rice to human

subjects.'The letter says there has been 'woefully inadequate pre-clinical evaluation' of the rice.The

scientists argue there is a large body of evidence showing GM food

production can trigger gene mutations which 'can result in health

damaging effects when GM food products are fed to animals'.The

letter adds: 'Our greatest concern is that this rice, which is

engineered to overproduce beta carotene, has never been tested in

animals'.It says there is evidence that certain chemicals derived from beta carotene 'are both toxic and cause birth defects'. Critics

of the GM experiments says the Nuremburg code states that children

under 10 are not considered legally capable of giving consent to

participation in such experiments.They say the code also requires that human guinea pigs should not be used if scientists have an alternative experimental method.Thirdly, experiments on humans should not be conducted until tests with animals have identified potential hazards.Among

the leading bodies behind the GM Golden rice project are the biotech

company Syngenta, the Rockefeller Foundation and the charitable

foundation set up by Microsoft boss Bill Gates.The list of

signatories to the protest letter includes Malcolm Hooper, emeritus

professor of medicinal chemistry at Sunderland University, who said:

'This type of experimentation is frightening - children as lab rats -

it is not on.'Another is Prof David Schubert, of the Salk

Institute of Biological Studies, San Diego, who said: 'It is completely

immoral to feed this rice to children without proper safety testing...

It's like putting a new drug on the market with no toxicology or safety

trials.'Other signatories include Prof Carlo Leifert, director

of the Tesco Centre for Organic Agriculture at Newcastle University;

and Dr Stanley WB Ewen.Dr Ewen was involved in rat feeding trials in Scotland in 1999 which linked GM potatoes to harmful toxic effects.Dr

Brian John, of GM Free Cymru said: 'These irresponsible and dangerous

trials must be stopped immediately, and the Golden Rice Project team

must put its much-vaunted product through a full and transparent

testing process before it is allowed to pass the lips of any other

human being.'Project manager at the Golden Rice Organisation,

Dr Adrian Dubock, denied that the Nuremburg Code has been breached. He

said the feeding trials had been approved by independent ethical review

panels.'Parents were not given financial rewards for their

children's participation - to avoid undue pressure on poor families -

but children were rewarded with school bags and pencils and paper as a

thank you for participating,' he said.Dr Dubock said 6,000

people around the world die every day due to illnesses related to

failing immune systems where Vitamin A deficiency is a factor.'The

Golden Rice contains the food colours found everywhere in coloured

natural foods and the environment... There is no possible way the

trials could do any harm to the participants.'Dr Dubock said

animal experiments would not have helped. 'As humans are the designed

beneficiaries of Golden Rice, animal testing could not answer the

questions posed,' he said.This appears odd as all GM foods,

which are designed to be eaten by humans, are required to go through

animal testing by food safety authorities in many countries.

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