New study shows unborn babies could be harmed by GM

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GM: New study shows unborn babies could be harmed

 

Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed

on a diet of modified soya

 

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

 

The Independent on Sunday, 08 January 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article337253.ece

 

Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn

babies, startling new research suggests.

 

The study - carried out by a leading scientist at the Russian Academy

of Sciences - found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed

on modified soya died in the first three weeks of life, six times as

many as those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many

were also severely underweight.

 

The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one

of a clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food

damages human health. Italian research has found that modified soya

affected the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a

decade-long attempt to develop modified peas when an official study

found they caused lung damage.

 

And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech

giant Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had

smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible

damage to their immune systems, than those that ate a similar

conventional one.

 

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation held a workshop

on the safety of genetically modified foods at its Rome headquarters

late last year. The workshop was addressed by scientists whose

research had raised concerns about health dangers. But the World Trade

Organisation is expected next month to support a bid by the Bush

administration to force European countries to accept GM foods.

 

The Russian research threatens to have an explosive effect on already

hostile public opinion. Carried out by Dr Irina Ermakova at the

Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the

Russian Academy of Sciences, it is believed to be the first to look at

the effects of GM food on the unborn.

 

The scientist added flour from a GM soya bean - produced by Monsanto

to be resistant to its pesticide, Roundup - to the food of female

rats, starting two weeks before they conceived, continuing through

pregnancy, birth and nursing. Others were given non-GM soyaand a third

group was given no soya at all.

 

She found that 36 per cent of the young of the rats fed the modified

soya were severely underweight, compared to 6 per cent of the

offspring of the other groups. More alarmingly, a staggering 55.6 per

cent of those born to mothers on the GM diet perished within three

weeks of birth, compared to 9 per cent of the offspring of those fed

normal soya, and 6.8 per cent of the young of those given no soya at all.

 

" The morphology and biochemical structures of rats are very similar to

those of humans, and this makes the results very disturbing " said Dr

Ermakova. " They point to a risk for mothers and their babies. "

 

Environmentalists say that - while the results are preliminary - they

are potentially so serious that they must be followed up. The American

Academy of Environmental Medicine has asked the US National Institute

of Health to sponsor an immediate, independent follow-up.

 

The Monsanto soya is widely eaten by Americans. There is little of it,

or any GM crop, in British foods though it is imported to feed animals

farmed for meat.

 

Tony Coombes, director of corporate affairs for Monsanto UK, said:

" The overwhelming weight of evidence from published, peer-reviewed,

independently conducted scientific studies demonstrates that Roundup

Ready soy can be safely consumed by rats, as well as all other animal

species studied. "

 

What the experiment found

 

Russian scientists added flour made from a GM soya to the diet of

female rats two weeks before mating them, and continued feeding it to

them during pregnancy, birth and nursing. Others were give non-GM soya

or none at all. Six times as many of the offspring of those fed the

modified soya were severely underweight compared to those born to the

rats given normal diets. Within three weeks, 55.6 per cent of the

young of the mothers given the modified soya died, against 9 per cent

of the offspring of those fed the conventional soya.

safely consumed by rats, as well as all other animal species studied. "