Scottish Doctor Warns of Cancer Risk from Crops

[Guest guest]

Scottish Doctor Warns of Cancer Risk from Crops JoAnn Guest Jan 01, 2003

18:04 PST

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Scottish doctor warns of cancer risk from crops

 

Demand for Executive to ban crop trials until effects of GM food on

health are studied

 

December 8

Sunday Herald (Scotland)

 

EATING genetically modified (GM) food could give you cancer. That is

the stark warning today from one of Scotland's leading experts in

tissue diseases.

 

Dr Stanley Ewen, a consultant histopathologist at Aberdeen Royal

Infirmary, says that a cauliflower virus used in GM foods could

increase the risk of stomach and colon cancers.

 

He is calling for the health of people who live near the farm-scale

GM crop trials in Aberdeenshire, Ross-shire and Fife to be monitored.

Their food and water will be contaminated by GM material, he said,

which could hasten the growth of malignant tumours.

 

'I don't want to be scare-mongering, I want to be understated,' Ewen

told the Sunday Herald. 'But I'm very concerned that people who rely

on local produce might be endangering themselves.'

 

The government, backed by its scientific advisors, has always

insisted the GM trials pose no risk to human health or the

environment. Never theless, the trials have provoked widespread

opposition, with dozens of protesters arrested for damaging GM crops.

 

Ewen's warning, which has been delivered to the Scottish Parliament's

Health and Community Care Committee, is bound to be seized on by

critics. The committee is just completing an investigation into the

safety of GM food and is hoping to report its findings this week.

 

Ewen, who has 29 years' experience as a histopathologist, is

currently leading a pilot project in Grampian to screen people for

colon cancer. In 1999, along with Dr Arpad Pusztai, a former

researcher at Aberdeen's Rowett

Institute, he published a study suggesting that GM potatoes harm rats.

 

In his submission to the health committee, Ewen expressed 'great

concern' about the use of the cauliflower mosaic virus as

a 'promoter' in GM foods. The virus is used like a tiny engine to

drive implanted genes to express themselves.

 

But Ewen pointed out that the virus is infectious, and could act as

a 'growth factor' in the stomach or colon, encouraging the growth of

polyps. The faster and bigger polyps grow, the more likely they are

to be malignant, he added.

 

There are also risks in feeding GM products like maize to cattle, he

cautioned.

 

'It is possible cows' milk will contain GM derivatives that can be

directly ingested by humans as milk or cheese. Even a lightly cooked,

thick fillet steak could contain active GM material.'

 

GM material can be destroyed by cooking or boiling for 10 minutes,

and it can be broken down by the acids and enzymes in the stomach.

But Ewen is worried that genes in uncooked GM fruit and vegetables

could survive common

stomach infections.

 

'It is possible GM DNA could affect stomach and colonic lining by

causing a growth factor effect with the unproven possibility of

hastening cancer formation in those organs,' he stated.

 

Ewen stressed that he is not opposed to all GM technology, which he

believes could have real benefits, particularly in medicine. But he

is sufficiently alarmed by the current use of the technology to urge

the health committee to call for a ban on GM crop trials while their

safety is tested on animals.

 

Doctors from the British Medical Association have also suggested a GM

ban to the committee because of the unknown effects on health. The

committee's investigation was prompted by a petition of 6000

signatures gathered by

protesters who maintained a vigil at a GM trial site at Munlochy in

Ross-shire.

 

'What is most worrying about Dr Ewen's evidence is that while his

concerns are disease-specific, the risks extend to a wide range of GM

food crops,' said Jo Hunt, director of the lobby group Highlands and

Islands GM Concern.

 

'The effects are caused not by just one 'bad' DNA fragment, but are a

result of the reaction of plant cells to genetic engineering itself.

All the major GM food plants currently produced could have the same

effect when eaten.'

 

Hunt argued that long-term research was needed to establish whether

GM food was safe. 'But instead of looking at the impact of GM food on

people's health, the Scottish Executive has spent over £5 million on

farm-scale trials to see how growing GM crops on Scottish farms will

affect butterflies and weeds. The Executive has already released GM

at 11 sites and is

considering allowing GM to be released anywhere in the country from

2004, before it knows whether GM food is safe to eat.'

 

The Executive also came under fire from the Scottish National Party's

shadow environment minister, Bruce Crawford, who demanded a freeze on

GM crops trials. 'We cannot allow GM material to enter the food chain

until there are absolute guarantees that there are no risks,' he said.

 

He pointed out that, in a recent letter, the environment minister,

Ross Finnie, had admitted to him that plants around GM crops could

become contaminated. Finnie added, however, that the government's

advice was 'unanimous in its conclusion that GM crops that have

approval do not pose a safety threat.'

 

Ewen's evidence to the health committee is backed up by a separate

submission from Arpad Pusztai, who now works as an independent

consultant. He warned that GM contamination could jeopardise human

health and cause

irreversible environmental damage.

 

'We need to rethink the whole strategy of genetic engineering,'

Pusztai said. 'Because of its potential importance for, and effect

on, mankind, it should not be left to the decision of a few

multinational companies.'

 

 

JoAnn Guest

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