GMW: Legal move to make EU publish GM test results/results of secret GM study re

[Guest guest]

GMW: Legal move to make EU publish GM test results/results of

secret GM study read into Congressional record

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 29 May 2005 11:58:30 +0100

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http;//www.gmwatch.org

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1.Legal move to make EU publish GM test results

2.Congressman enters results of secret GM study into Congressional

record

 

COMMENT

 

It's good news that there are going to be legal challenges (item 1) to

the keeping secret of Monsanto's still unpublished 1139 page report on

its 90-day rat feeding study, which showed that rats fed on its GM corn

(Mon 863) had smaller kidneys and raised levels of white blood cells

compared to those who ate a similar non-GM corn. (item 2)

 

It seems highly anything that there is anything in it that could

remotely be regarded as commercially sensitive - the reason given by

Monsanto

for not publishing it. Unless, of course, Monsanto has a proprietary

right over crap science!

 

Incidentally, Prof Colin Berry, who is part of the industry-friendly

pro-GM lobby group - the

Scientific Alliance, said the following during a recent BBC interview:

 

BBC REPORTER: Wouldn't it be better then just to publish them up front

and people would have much more confidence if they knew that any

scientist could go and look at the data, look at the original findings

and

say whether or not they stand up to scrutiny?

 

PROFESSOR BERRY: Yes I think that's a perfectly reasonable point. I

think the problem is I'm not the proper person to decide what is

commercially sensitive, but let me emphasize, as far as I understand

it all of

these data are discoverable that any... by any scientist who wants to

see them if they've been reported to a regulatory authority.

 

So perhaps Sir Colin could tell us exactly where scientists who want to

see this data can " discover " and obtain them from a regulatory

authority - or why Dr Pusztai had to sign a " Declaration of secrecy "

before

one of the national competent

authorities handed over the 1139 pages? The declaration was designed

precisely to ensure that he could not publicly " say whether or not they

stand up to scrutiny " .

 

Of course, Monsanto keeps emphasising that their report did get past

various scientific bureaucrats including the European Food Safety

Authority (EFSA). That fact would be slightly more persuasive if the EFSA

actually had some active scientists with nutritional expertise on its

committee or if it had on any occasion rejected anything from any

biotechnology company! It never has. Approval appears to be close to

invariable.

Unlike other working scientists, it seems, corporate biotechnologists

always turn out flawless work! For more on the disturbing record of the

EFSA: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4669

 

Finally, GM WATCH's Claire Robinson reminds us of a basic fact of

science that Dr Pusztai has often pointed out:

 

Why do scientists perform complex biological experiments on groups of

rats which were given different diets (GM vs non-GM)?

 

Obviously, they want to find out whether the various measured

parameters, properties or some other data obtained in the experiment

are the

same or different between the different groups (the notorious substantial

equivalence).

 

So what is the point when they find *statistically significant

differences* if they and other pro-GM scientists turn around and say

but we

think that these differences are not important!!!

 

If these differences are not important, why did they waste so much time

and money looking for them in the first place?

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1.Legal move to make EU publish GM test results

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

Independent on Sunday, 29 May 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=642333

 

Two legal initiatives are to be launched to force European bureaucrats

to make public secret research on the effects of feeding GM corn to

rats, whose results were exclusively revealed in The Independent on

Sunday.

 

This week, in separate moves, a British pressure group is to approach

the European ombudsman, and a former French environment minister is to

write to the European Court to ask it to lift the cloak of

confidentiality from a 1,139- page report by the biotech giant

Monsanto, which

showed that rats fed a modified corn had smaller kidneys and raised

levels

of white blood cells compared to those who ate a similar non-GM one.

 

The results have raised fears that human health might also be at risk

from the corn, which the EU is expected to approve for sale this year.

 

Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini, professor of molecular biology at the

University of Caen, who scrutinises the safety of GM products for the EC,

told The Independent on Sunday last week that he found the research

results " very worrying " .

 

He is president of the Scientific Council of the French Committee for

Independent Research and Information on Genetics, which has been trying

to get the research made public for 18 months.

 

Monsanto claims to have published " all the relevant safety information "

in an 11-page report in December 2002, but while asserting that the

rats " responded similarly " to GM and non-GM food, it contains no detailed

data.

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2.[Congressman] Kucinich enters results of secret GM study into

Congressional record

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6184

 

Thursday 26th May 2005 (18h24) :

 

" Mr. Speaker, I wish to bring the following article to the attention of

my colleagues. We must continue to challenge the FDA's assumption that

all genetically engineered food is safe. "

From the Independent, May 22, 2005

 

Revealed: Health Fears Over Secret Study Into GM Food

By Geoffrey Lean

 

Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed

abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising

fears that

human health could be affected by eating GM food.

 

The Independent on Sunday can today reveal details of secret research

carried out by Monsanto, the GM food giant, which shows that rats fed

the modified corn had smaller kidneys and variations in the composition

of their blood.

 

According to the confidential 1,139-page report, these health problems

were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of

the research project.

 

The disclosures come as European countries, including Britain, prepare

to vote on whether the GM-modified corn should go on sale to the

public. A vote last week by the European Union failed to secure agreement

over whether the product should be sold here, after Britain and nine

other

countries voted in favour.

 

However, the disclosure of the health effects on the Monsanto rats has

intensified the row over whether the corn is safe to eat without

further research. Doctors said the changes in the blood of the rodents

could

indicate that the rat's immune system had been damaged or that a

disorder such as a tumour had grown and the system was mobilising to

fight

it.

 

Dr. Vyvyan Howard, a senior lecturer on human anatomy and cell biology

at Liverpool University, called for the publication of the full study,

saying the summary gave " prima facie cause for concern. "

 

Dr. Michael Antoniu, an expert in molecular genetics at Guy's Hospital

Medical School, described the findings as " very worrying from a medical

point of view " , adding: " I have been amazed at the number of

significant differences they found [in the rat experiment]. "

 

Although Monsanto last night dismissed the abnormalities in rats as

meaningless and due to chance, reflecting normal variations between rats,

a senior British government source said ministers were so worried by

the findings that they had called for further information.

 

Environmentalists will see the findings as vindication of British

research seven years ago, which suggested that rats that ate GM potatoes

suffered damage to their health. That research, which was roundly

denounced by ministers and the British scientific establishment, was

halted and

Dr. Arpad Pusztai, the scientist behind the controversial findings, was

forced into retirement amid a huge row over the claim.

 

Dr. Pusztai reported a " huge list of significant differences " between

rats fed GM and conventional corn, saying the results strongly indicate

that eating significant amounts of it can damage health. The new study

is into a corn, codenamed MON 863, which has been modified by Monsanto

to protect itself against corn rootworm, which the company describes as

" one of the most pernicious pests affecting maize crops around the

world. "

 

Now, however, any decision to allow the corn to be marketed in the UK

will cause widespread alarm. The full details of the rat research are

included in the main report, which Monsanto refuses to release on the

grounds that " it contains confidential business information which

could be

of commercial use to our competitors. "

 

A Monsanto spokesman said yesterday: " If any such well-known

anti-biotech critics had doubts about the credibility of these

studies, they

should have raised them with the regulators. After all, MON 863 isn't

new,

having been approved to be as safe as conventional maize by nine other

global authorities since 2003. "

 

http://kucinich.us

 

by : Kucinich on House Floor

Thursday 26th May 2005

 

 

 

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