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US:
CONCERN OVER HEALTH EFFECTS OF BIO-TECH FOOD Washington,22 Oct 99(IPS) -- A new scientific study, suggesting that genetically modified foods may be harmful to health, underscores the need for government testing of such products before they are marketed, say US public health researchers. About 40 genetically modified (GM) crops appear in a variety of food products now available on the US market. But only a handful of studies have examined the long-term health and environmental impact of these foods because government regulatory bodies do not require such testing. Health experts point out, however, that the few peer-reviewed scientific studies that have been carried out indicate there is a need for further monitoring and study - despite the claims of the bio-tech industry that their products are safe. [According to postings on some of the internet list-servers on this question, at least in the case of the Bt-corn, the toxicity tests were done and considered safe for use, not on the relevant protein extracted from the Bt-corn, but from the plants with Bt- genes which expel a natural protein that is toxic to pests.] [The adequacy of these tests have been challenged by critics who point out that the protein expelled from the Bt-corn is much more concentrated than the natural protein expelled by the plants that have a natural Bt and which affect pests. And unlike the natural Bt expelled by the plants or even organic pesticides prepared from them, the corn containing the Bt-gene is ingested by humans and animals, and the toxic protein is more concentrated.] "What we are seeing is that there are, in fact, new effects created (by GM foods)," says Paul Billings, a medical geneticist, who is a board member of the Council for Responsible Genetics. "But we don't have the monitors in place to decide if these impacts are, on the whole, better or worse for human health," says Billings, who has co-authored laws and policies to protect the public against having their genetic information used against them. Scientist Arpad Pusztai published a study the leading British medical journal 'The Lancet' this month which underlined public concern - especially in Europe - over eating GM food. He found that rats fed with genetically engineered potatoes suffered adverse health effects - a thickening of stomach walls and other changes in their intestines. The potatoes had contained an implanted gene to produce lectin, a type of chemical found in nearly all plants that act as a pesticide. While other types of GM potatoes are currently on the market, the kind used in the study are still in the testing phase and not yet freely available. Health officials here concede that, while Pusztai's study is in a preliminary phase, the research is important because it is the first study to link health problems with GM foods. Last May, health and environmental experts also became alarmed with the results of another peer-reviewed study, conducted by Cornell University. Researchers there found that half the butterflies that ate milk weed - a main food source commonly found near cornfields - that had been dusted with pollen from genetically modified corn, died. Others grew to only half the normal size. While few in number, such emerging studies prove that regulatory agencies need to conduct tests to prove the products are safe for humans, says Michael Hansen, a senior researcher at the Consumers Union, a Washington-based advocacy organisation. "These products have been in use for too short a time and our regulatory framework is too fragmented, too reliant on industry self-regulation, to say that either experience or the government assures safety," he says. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture test for immediate safety of GM products. But they, as most other countries' regulatory agencies, do not require long term testing health and environmental impact testing of GM foods because the agencies have determined GM food to be essentially the same thing as non-GM food. Erik Millstone, science and technology policy researcher for Sussex University in Britain, says this policy, known as "substantial equivalence," is "tantamount to pseudo-science." Current policy "should be replaced with a practical approach that would actively investigate the safety and toxicity of GM foods rather than merely taking them for granted," wrote Millstone, in the Oct. 7 edition of the scientific journal Nature. In response to the growing outcry against GM foods, the USDA announced recently it will hold several public forums across the country next month to discuss its regulatory process for the products. One public health concern over human consumption of GM foods is that some percentage of the public may be allergic to a certain protein introduced by a gene that is not present in the non- engineered variety, says Hansen. Allergies may also develop only after repeated exposure to a substance. "Unless the new substance undergoes long-term clinical testing, there cannot be certainty as to the safety of the new variety," he says Since GM foods are not labelled in the United States, consumers with certain food allergies would not even be able to choose to avoid GM foods, Hansen adds. Researchers also worry about the possible health impacts of the anti-biotic "marker gene" that are commonly used to trace gene transfers. All genetically engineered products have anti-biotic marker genes. After GM food is absorbed into the human digestive trace, these anti-biotic genes could move from what we have eaten into the blood stream or into the bacteria in the intestines, says Billings. "Such transfers might alter our health directly or change the beneficial symbiosis between people (the bacteria that inhabit our intestines)," he warns. It could also help further spur resistance to antibiotic pharmaceuticals, one of the major emerging public health threats, adds Hansen. While the British Medical Association and Consumers Union both recommend a ban on the use of antibiotic markers in GM foods, the FDA says there is a "vanishingly small" risk that antibiotic marker genes will be transferred to disease- causing bacteria. The above article by the Inter Press Service appeared in the South- North Development Monitor (SUNS) .
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