GE Cotton in Tampons & Bandages Could Give Rise to Untreatable Gonorrhoea

[Guest guest]

GE Cotton in Tampons & Bandages Could Give Rise to

Untreatable Gonorrhoea

28 September 2000

http://www.organicconsumers.org/patent/vdcotton.cfm

 

Press Release (Accion Ecologica, Ecuador, Institute of Science in

Society,

UK, and Grupo de Reflexion Rural, Argentina)

 

Monsanto's Transgenic Cottons Can Make Gonorrhoea Untreatable

According to UK Government Sources

 

The information is in the archives of the UK Advisory Committee on

Novel

Foods and Processes (ACNFP) which vats applications for commercial

approval

of novel foods and animal feed. The strongly worded advice against

the

approval of Monsanto's transgenic cotton seed, was given in February

1999

(but was only published earlier this year by the UK Ministry of

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). At around the same time, the

European

Union rejected Monsanto's application for the sale of the transgenic

cottons in Europe.

 

The aad gene, which confers resistance to the antibiotics

streptomycin and

spectinomycin, is present in both Bollgard (insect-protected) and

Roundup

Ready (herbicide tolerant) transgenic cottons.

 

The bacterium responsible for gonorrhoea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae,

could

acquire the aad gene from transgenic plant materials during

infection of

the mouth and small and large intestine as well as the respiratory

tract.

N. gonorrhoeae could also acquire the gene indirectly from other

bacteria

in the internal and external environments of animals and human

beings,

which can take up the gene from transgenic plant materials. Those

other

bacteria can serve as a reservoir for antibiotic resistance genes.

 

The principle use of streptomycin is as a second-line drug for

tuberculosis. But it is in the treatment of gonorrhoea that

spectinomycin

is most important. It is the drug of choice for treating strains of

N.

gonorrhoeae already resistant to penicillin and third generation

cephalosporins, especially during pregnancy.

 

About 60% of the cotton harvest consist of cotton seed. Cotton seed

oil is

extracted for human consumption, while the residue, cotton seed cake

is

used in animal feed. Although the Government advice was aimed at

cotton

seed, there are other hazards arising from the use of transgenic

cotton

itself, which may be why it was rejected by the EU.

 

" Cotton is used in women's sanitary napkins and tampons, in babies'

nappies, in bandages and other wound dressings. " Dr. Elizabeth

Bravo, a

biologist from Accion Ecologica, Ecuador, reminds us, " The health

impacts

are enormous. "

 

Both transgenic cottons are being grown in millions of hectares in

the

United States and China, and exported to other countries. They are

also

planted to a smaller extent in Argentina. And Monsanto is trying to

introduce them into Bolivia and other Latin American countries as

well as

India and Thailand. Illegal plantings of at least 500 hectares have

already

been discovered in Indonesia.

 

" Why is this important scientific advice from UK Government

scientists kept

in the archives for more than a year before it was published? " asked

Dr.

Mae-Wan Ho, geneticist and biophysicist from the Institute of

Science in

Society (UK). " It could have, and should have, prevented millions of

hectares of transgenic cottons from being planted. "

 

Dr. Bravo and Ho call for all transgenic cotton crops should be

destroyed,

and no more should be planted. Meanwhile, people should avoid using

transgenic cotton products, especially in tampons, babies' nappies

and

wound dressings. And transgenic cotton seeds should certainly not be

used

in food or feed.

 

Contacts: Dr. Elizabeth Bravo and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho at Amerian Hotel,

Buenos

Aires tel: 0351-155-633635 , e-mail: monaco; Dr.

Aldolfo Boy,

grupodereflexionrural