US panel upholds ban on biotech corn

by Abid Aslam

Washington, 27 Jul 2001 (IPS) - An advisory panel urged the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Friday to maintain its prohibition against the use of StarLink bio-engineered corn in human food.

Health and environmental advocates welcomed the recommendation as a rebuff to StarLink’s manufacturer, Aventis CropScience. The company had asked that the genetically modified (GMO) yellow corn variety - which crept into human food supplies despite being banned - be approved for human consumption.

The EPA approved StarLink in 1998 for livestock feed but banned it in human food because of uncertainties about health effects. The crop is cultivated in the US and may have worked its way into the food supply in other parts of the world.

Earlier this year, environmentalists said they found traces of StarLink’s unique Cry9C protein in food products made with some imported ingredients by Thai licensees of multinational companies. Samples of the foodstuffs reportedly had been sent to a laboratory in Hong Kong.

StarLink sparked a massive US food recall last year, when it was found in yellow-corn taco shells after consumers reported suffering allergic reactions.  Earlier this year, it also was found in white-corn food products previously considered invulnerable to the GMO corn, which is yellow.

Critics said the incidents confirmed their fears that the GMO corn could not be effectively quarantined from the rest of the US food supply.

Aventis maintained its product was safe for human consumption but the scientific panel ruled Friday that there simply wasn’t enough evidence to decide one way or the other. By default, therefore, it recommended that the ban on StarLink be maintained.

The EPA asked the panel of 16 physicians and scientists to evaluate whether it was possible to establish a ‘tolerance level’, or maximum allowable amount, for StarLink in human food. Aventis asked the EPA in April to set a tolerance level of 20 parts per billion for StarLink in processed food.

The scientists concluded Friday that “there is inadequate information to establish a reasonable scientific certainty that exposure would not be harmful to public health,” the EPA said in a statement Friday. Therefore, it added, “they could not recommend establishing a specific tolerance level for StarLink.”

The scientists said there is a “medium likelihood” that StarLink causes allergic reactions in humans. But, they added, efforts by Aventis and the US agriculture department could ensure that StarLink is effectively segregated from the food supply by 2002.

The Genetically Engineered Food Alert Coalition welcomed Friday’s recommendation, saying it showed that “the government’s own science advisors agreed” with the coalition’s demands for “a thorough government investigation into the human and environmental impacts of StarLink before considering the request by Aventis CropScience to approve it.”

The group, in a statement, faulted the government for using “insufficient” allergy reporting measures and said it supported the scientific panel in calling for “a more extensive investigation into the allergy concerns surrounding StarLink.”

The coalition said it took credit for “originally discovering the adulterated corn in taco shells.” It was founded by the non-governmental organisations Centre for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Environmental Trust, Organic Consumer Association, Pesticide Action Network North America and state-level Public Interest Research Groups.

Aventis faces several lawsuits over contaminated foods. It declined to discuss the financial impact of the StarLink debacle, other than to suggest it would be “significantly below the highly speculative figures reported in the press.” These estimates run as high as $1 billion.

US-based Aventis CropScience is a unit of Franco-German pharmaceutical firm Aventis SA. Cry9C, a protein unique to StarLink, repels destructive pests as the corn grows. Apart from use in livestock feed, StarLink is approved for use in making the fuel ethanol.

The company has pointed out that although it developed and registered StarLink,  the corn is grown and distributed by third parties. Those parties - including  farmers and food processors - have wrangled with Aventis over liability in the  lawsuits stemming from last year’s food contamination. – SUNS4947

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