ISP Newsflash

[Guest guest]

27 Apr 2004 14:58:37 -0000

 

ISP Newsflash

press-release

 

 

The Institute of Science in Society Science Society

Sustainability http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam Website/Mailing List

press-release ISIS Director m.w.ho

========================================================

 

 

Press Release Embargoed until 28 April 2004

 

Independent Scientists Call for Enquiry into GM Food Safety

***********************************************

 

At a briefing to be held in Parliament tomorrow, the

Independent Science Panel (a group representing more than 1

000 scientists around the world) will release its new

dossier of evidence on the problems and hazards of GM as

well as the proven successes and benefits of sustainable

agriculture. It makes the case for banning all environmental

releases of GM crops and for a comprehensive shift to

sustainable agriculture. The ISP will call for a thorough

enquiry into GM food safety and the systematic abuse of

science that has allowed commercial approval in the face of

damning evidence indicating that GM food is far from safe.

There is ample evidence to indicate all is not well with GM

food and feed. But the findings have been systematically

suppressed, ignored, misrepresented or simply not followed

up. The latest in a long series of scandals is the European

Food Safety Authority’s positive assessment of Monsanto’s GM

maize Mon863, despite damning evidence of serious health

impacts: kidney malformations and increase in white blood

cells in male rats, increase in blood glucose and reduced

immature red blood cells in female rats. Other evidence

includes the following.

 

·Villagers in the south of the Philippines living near

fields planted with Monsanto’s GM hybrid maize containing Bt

toxin suffered debilitating illnesses in two successive

growing seasons.

 

· Between 2001 and 2002, twelve dairy cows died on a farm in

Hesse, Germany, after eating Syngenta’s Bt176 GM maize, and

others in the herd had to be slaughtered on account of

mysterious illnesses.

 

· Arpad Pusztai and colleagues found that GM potatoes with

snowdrop lectin adversely affected every organ system of

young rats, and the stomach and small intestine lining grew

up to twice the thickness of controls.

 

· Scientists in Egypt found similar results in the

gastrointestinal tract of mice fed GM potato with Bt toxin.

 

· US Food and Drug Administration had data since the early

1990s showing that rats fed GM tomatoes with antisense gene

to delay ripening developed small holes in their stomach.

 

· Aventis (now Bayer) found 100% increase in deaths of

broiler chickens fed glufosinate- tolerant GM maize T25

compared to controls. · Numerous anecdotes from farmers and

others indicating that livestock, wildlife and lab animals

avoid GM feed, and fail to thrive or die when forced to eat

it.

 

 

 

 

The Independent Science Panel Special Parliamentary Briefing

 

 

The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World

*********************************

 

 

Stanley Ewen, Mae-Wan Ho, Brian John, Lim Li Ching, Michael

Meacher MP, Peter Saunders

 

Chairing Alan Simpson MP

 

Also attending ISP members Michael Antoniou & Eva Novotny

MPs Joan Ruddock & Roger Williams Noel Lynch (GLA) and Sue

Mayer (GeneWatch)

 

29 April 2004 Time: 10:00 h to 12:00 h Venue: Grand

Committee Room*, House of Commons

 

*Due to over-subscription, we have been allocated a bigger

room, which means there will be a few extra places

 

Last chance to reserve a place by writing to tickets@I-

sis.org.uk giving name and organisation (if applicable)

 

 

Organised by the office of Alan Simpson MP in conjunction

with the Institute of Science in Society

 

 

 

========================================================

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

If you like this original article from the Institute of

Science in Society, and would like to continue receiving

articles of this calibre, please consider making a donation

or purchase on our website

 

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/donations.

 

ISIS is an independent, not-for-profit organisation

dedicated to providing critical public information on

cutting edge science, and to promoting social accountability

and ecological sustainability in science.

 

If you would prefer to receive future mailings as HTML

please let us know. If you would like to be removed from our

mailing list at

 

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/mailinglist/.php

========================================================

CONTACT DETAILS

 

The Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London

NW1 OXR

 

telephone: [44 20 8643 0681] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20

7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam Website/Mailing List

press-release ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

MATERIAL IN THIS EMAIL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT

PERMISSION, ON CONDITION THAT IT IS ACCREDITED ACCORDINGLY

AND CONTAINS A LINK TO http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at HotJobs