Studies indicate European Commission lacks confidence in own GM safety tests
Improperly tested GM foods already in circulation in EU
August 2001
At least eight scientific studies - as yet uncompleted - sponsored by the European Commission indicate that it has less than full confidence in the adequacy of its own current safety testing and monitoring methods for GM foods and crops. Details of these studies, the full suite of which is not due to be completed until 2004, are given below.
The specifications for the research projects reveal that major question marks concerning the adequacy of the scientific knowledge base supporting present GM testing methods have been raised by the European Commission. In essence these studies confirm that GM foods already circulating in EU markets remain untested in accordance with rigorous and reliable scientific methods.
Until these crucial studies are completed and any recommendations implemented it is essential, in accordance with the precautionary principle enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty, and contrary to the intentions of the current Belgian presidency of the EU, that:
1) No further authorisations of GM foods are permitted with the EU.
2) Existing EU authorisations for GM foods are suspended. We recommend that those who find this situation cause for significant concern write directly to their MEPs highlighting these matters.
MEP contact details can be obtained from the following web site: http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep5/owa/p_meps2.repartition?ilg=EN&iorig=home
Domestic MPs in national parliaments should also be informed of this situation.
Whilst it has been commonplace for governmental and scientific institutions to publicly dismiss many technical concerns raised by critics of genetically engineered foods, these studies commissioned by the EU indicate that more privately such concerns are regarded as valid.
Looking beyond Europe those concerned about the inadequacies inherent in current testing arrangements for GMOs may wish to draw this de facto admission by the EU to the attention of governments and consumer/environmental organisations elsewhere across the globe. Few, if any, countries have higher testing requirements than the EU, and certainly not the US.
The constant refrain from governments and eminent scientific institutions that we must have a "scientific" debate about GMOs is a fraud.
It is clear from these yet-to-be-completed studies that GMOs have been introduced into the global environment and food chain well before even the most basic science has been done.
At the end of this message we have also included details of a previous study
commissioned by the EU (completed September 2000) which confirms - contrary to frequent
claims by the scientific establishment - that the technology used to create GMOs is
imprecise and unpredictable.
In the context of the de facto acknowledgement by the European Commission of these
outstanding risks it is clear that in no sense can the release of GMOs into the food chain
and the environment be considered to be responsible at this particularly ignorant stage in
the development of our scientific knowledge of such organisms.
In practice we are now likely to be witnessing one of the biggest scandals in political
and scientific history, in respect of which BSE (whose real consequences we are only just
beginning to realise fifteen years after its first detection despite all the 'science'
since) may be merely a modest prelude. Contrary to the claims of the British Prime
Minister, health and the environment are indeed being sacrificed on the altar of GM driven
commerce and trade. There is no other reason for the formal reliance on such flimsy
regulatory regimes and inadequate science.
It is a telling matter that the major pressure for better science has had to come from outside government, industry, and academic circles, and not from within them. The current studies commissioned by the EU are a response to that pressure. Let us hope that it is not a response which is already too late.
"So far, 100 people are believed to have died as a
result of eating BSE infected meat.
No-one can precisely predict how large the scale of vCJD will be, as no-one knows how long
the disease remains undetected in humans before symptoms emerge.
But the latest estimates say the death toll could be as high at 100,000."
BBC News 9 August 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1481000/1481175.stm
"There is no scientific proof that BSE can be transmitted to man by
beef."
(from document published by the NFU of England and Wales, believed to
have been issued April 1996 - see: http://sparc.airtime.co.uk/bse/news4.htm
; http://sparc.airtime.co.uk/bse/deal.htm).
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-04-project.html
New methods for the safety testing of transgenic food (SAFOTEST)
".....there is no precise harmonisation of methodologies to assure the safety of
transgenic food products, it being difficult to use traditional animal feeding studies for
toxicological assessments. This clearly raises biosafety issues for the use of GM products
in food. In vivo and in vitro validated nutritional-toxicological testing
procedures are urgently required. .....if the testing procedure investigated in this
project does not allow assessment of the toxicity of the gene products introduced into the
food product via the GM plants, the whole strategy for the safety assessment of novel
foods from GM plants will need to be revised".
Contract number
QLK1-1999-00651
Period
February 2000 - February 2004
Coordinator
I. Knudsen
Institute of Food Safety and Toxicology
Søborg (DK) ============================================================================ http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-07-project.html
Safety evaluation of horizontal gene transfer from genetically modified organisms to the microflora of the food chain and human gut
"...HGT [horizontal gene transfer] via transformation of bacteria in the food chain cannot be excluded. Free DNA persists in some materials for weeks, and furthermore, some bacteria develop natural/chemical competence to take up DNA from the environment. In addition, in the gastrointestinal tract of man and husbandry animals, DNA may remain stable for some time, particularly in the colon. The main objective of this project is to quantify the risk of HGT from genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and food derived thereof, to the microflora of the food chain and the human gut....The results of this study will be important for biosafety issues relating to the consumption of food prepared using GMOs."
Contract number
QLK1-1999-00527
Period
February 2000 - February 2003
Coordinator
J.M.B.M. van der Vossen
TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute
Zeist (NL)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-10-project.html
New methodologies for assessing the potential of unintended effects in genetically modified food crops
"One of the key issues in the risk assessment of GM crop plants is whether unexpected hazardous metabolic perturbations (so-called unintended effects) may have taken place in the organism due to genetic modification, that could affect its food or nutritional status. It is recognised that no adequate and effective animal models to identify and trace the sources of potential unintended effects are currently available. The objective of this project is to develop new methodologies that are of sufficient sensitivity and specificity to assess risks from this possible food-borne hazard. Implicit in this objective is the need to develop new knowledge which will serve as a basis to understand the implications of the genetic modification process on metabolic pathways in plants. ........The project is highly pertinent to EU legislation on Novel Foods and GM food crops in particular. It is especially relevant to underpin Community policies. The new methodology will also be of use for the agro-food industry as it contributes to a more informed awareness of the 'real risks' related to GM foods by providing an objective scientific data package directed towards a holistic view of the genetic modification process."
Contract number
QLK1-1999-00765
Period
February 2000 - January 2003
Coordinator
H.P.J.M. Noteborn
State Institute for Quality Control of Agricultural Products (RIKILT)
Wageningen (NL)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-11-project.html
European network safety assessment of genetically modified food crops
"The several aims of this project include the identification of key issues of the safety evaluation of GM food crops, and also the examination of whether current research methods are adequate to characterise specific safety hazards....... It will also coordinate ongoing research regarding safety testing of transgenic foods in the framework of the European research programme FP5. The project aims to design sensitive and specific new (in vitro) test methodologies for the evaluation of the safety and nutrition of whole complex foods. In addition, the risks of gene transfer from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to the gut microflora of humans and animals will be examined. As a result of the action of the working groups, several issues will be addressed such as whether current assessment strategies for GMOs are adequate to establish their biosafety with respect to chronic exposure of humans and animals to foods and food products respectively. Other specific issues that need to be considered relate to the nature of the technology applied. These deserve particular attention with respect to the biosafety assessment of GMOs, such as the use of the antibiotic resistance marker gene. It also should help to assess whether current analytical and toxicological test methods are of sufficient specificity and sensitivity to characterise hazards of newly expressed gene products, and to identify potential changes in the composition of GM food crops as a result of genetic modification (so-called 'unintended effects'). Another important issue is whether the safety testing of whole foods has been improved and alternative methods which could be developed."
Contract number
QLK1-1999-01182
Period
February 2000 - February 2003
Coordinator
H.A. Kuiper
State Institute for Quality Control of Agricultural Products (RIKILT)
Wageningen (NL)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/04-food/04-02-project.html
Reliable, standardised, specific, quantitative detection of
genetically modified food
".....a potential danger arises from the failure to detect non-approved GM organisms (GMOs). ....This project should provide information and methods essential for the detection of GMOs, and to identify the impact of this improved detection on consumer confidence".
Contract number
QLK1-1999-01301
Period
February 2000 - January 2003
Coordinator
A. Holst-Jensen
National Veterinary Institute
Oslo (NO)
Project website address
http://www.vetinst.no
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/01-plants/01-08-project.html
Effects and mechanisms of BT transgenes on biodiversity of non-target insects: pollinators, herbivores and their natural enemies
"This project will investigate the effects of transgenic, insect-resistant (Bt-) crops on the biodiversity of non-target herbivorous insects and their natural enemies, and pollinators........This project is at a very early stage......Possible hazards from Bt-plants for the biodiversity of non-target insects will be identified."
Contract number
QLK3-2000-00547
Period
October 2000 - September 2003
Coordinator
R. de Maagd
Plant Research International
Wageningen (NL)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/01-plants/01-09-project.html
Impact of three
selected biotechnological strategies for potato pathogen control on the indigenous soil
microbiota
"This study aims to assess the impact of three non-chemical strategies (involving the use of transgenic lines of potato and avirulent mutants of Ralstonia solanacearum) on the natural populations of micro-organisms associated with potato, the genetic diversity of potato pathogens and the efficacy of these strategies.....
This project should provide information about the efficacy of various non-chemical strategies for controlling potato pathogens, and the impact of these approaches on the soil microbes associated with the potato and the genetic diversity of potato pathogens."
Contract number
QLK3-2000-01598
Period
January 2001 - December 2003 Coordinator
J.D. van Elsas
Plant Research International (formerly IPO-DLO)
Wageningen (NL)
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/01-plants/01-10-project.html
Virus-resistant
transgenic plants: ecological impact of gene flow
"Virus resistance was among
the very first agronomically useful traits to be introduced into transgenic plants, and
several virus-resistant transgenic cultivars have already been commercially released in
the US and China. In order to provide the necessary science-based risk assessment of such
plants before contemplating commercial release in Europe, it is essential to clarify
several points concerning potential ecological impact.
The most important potential impacts could result from two forms of gene flow, either from
plant to virus by recombination, or from plant to plant by sexual outcrossing. At the end
of this three year project, it is expected that the results will clarify whether the
currently developed types of virus-resistant cultivars can be released with acceptable
risk due to either of these two forms of gene flow. ....will recombination with an
infecting virus lead to the creation of novel virus genomes, and will transmission of a
virus resistance gene to wild relatives of the modified crop species confer a fitness
advantage on the wild plants? These questions will be answered through both laboratory and
field studies.
This project compares transgenic and non-transgenic plants to show whether recombination in the former could lead to the appearance of novel recombinant viral genomes not found in the latter. The field studies of naturally-occurring recombinants virus will tell us whether the recombinants occurring under laboratory conditions correspond to those observed in the field. The gene flow studies in beet and oilseed rape and their wild relatives will allow prediction of whether the passage of a virus resistance gene into the wild species will affect their fitness."
Contract number
QLK3-2000-00361
Period
December 2000 - March 2004 Coordinator
M. Tepfer
INRA - Versailles (FR)
Project website address
http://www-biocel.versailles.inra.fr
http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/01-plants/01-14-project.html
The mechanisms and
control of genetic recombination in plants
"Biotechnology relies to a large extent on our ability to introduce foreign genes into cells. A major problem with present day technology is the non-predictability of the integration of such transgenes. DNA introduced into plant cells mostly integrates at random, i.e. at non-predetermined positions of the genome. The biological process ultimately responsible for random integration is known as illegitimate recombination. DNA integrated at random frequently contains multiple copies and often copies are scrambled. Multiple copies also often induce gene silencing and hence instability in the expression of the introduced genes. In addition, the DNA integrates at loci of unknown stability and capacity for expression and randomly integrated copies may induce unpredictable and undesirable mutations in the host genome.....Although our understanding of the general biology of recombination in plants is constantly improving, we still lack the knowledge for precision engineering of plants' genes."
Contract number
BIO4-CT97-2028
Period
October 1997 - September 2000
Coordinators
C. White
Université Blaise Pascal
Aubière (FR) B. Reiss
Max-Planck-Institut für Züchtungsforschung
Köln (DE) K. Metzlaff
University of Ghent (BE)
Project website address
http://www.epsoweb.
org/catalog/EU/science/
projects/2028.htm
The GM Claim
"...GM
techniques which in the precise and targeted way bring in a couple of genes that you know
what they do and you know where they are is vastly safer, vast, vastly more controlled
than this so-called conventional breeding...."
Sir Robert May, UK Government
Chief Scientist 1995 - 2000, and current
President of the Royal Society, UK
(BBC interview 9th March 2000)
The GM Reality
"Monsanto's technical dossier submitted for commercial approval claimed
that RR soya had a single insert with the intended order of genes. It turns out not to be
the case. Not only is the gene order of the insert itself scrambled, the plant DNA at the
site of insertion is also scrambled, and there is a large 534 bp fragment of unknown
origin in there as well".
(ISIS News No 9/10 July 2001)
More at: http://www.i-sis.org/isisnews/i-sisnews9-13.shtml
"The
perception that everything is totally straightforward and safe is utterly naive. I don't
think we fully understand the dimensions of what we're getting into."
Professor
Philip James (author of the "James" report commissioned by Tony Blair on the
structure and functions of the UK Food Standards Agency ), Director of the Rowett Research
Institute, Aberdeen, speaking on genetically engineered food risks
(3rd February 1998, the Scottish Daily Record)
"There
is... a need to develop more effective and appropriate screening methods to alert
companies and government agencies to the unexpected consequences of the often random
insertion of genetic traits into plants." Professor Philip James, evidence to the House of Commons
Select Committee on Science and Technology, March 1999
(PA News, 8 March 1999)
Incidence of food related
disease since the introduction of GM food in the US and lack of health monitoring
"The
C.D.C. [Centres for Disease Control] now says that food is responsible for twice the
number of illnesses in the United States as scientists thought just seven years ago.... At
least 80 percent of food-related illnesses are caused by viruses or other pathogens that
scientists cannot even identify."
New York Times, 18 March 2001
(5,000 deaths, 325,000 hospitalizations and 76 million illnesses
per annum caused by food poisoning in the US)
"Ben
Miflin, former director of the Institute of Arable Crops at Rothamsted, near London, who
is a proponent of the potential benefits of genetic modification of crops....argues that,
under current monitoring conditions, any unanticipated health impact of such foods would
need to be a 'monumental disaster' to be detectable."
Nature, Volume 398:651,
April 22, 1999
"Because
of the potential scale of use of GM material in the environment and in the food chain,
there is a need for a considerable strengthening of the UK disease surveillance systems,
both in their scope and depth. Disease surveillance and event monitoring procedures
will need to be sufficiently robust to deal with the potential emergence of new diseases
associated with GM material which will be obscure and difficult to diagnose."
British Medical
Association statement on GM foods May 1999
http://www.bma.org.uk/public/science/genmod.htm
Population duped by genetic engineers
Mystery of missing GM food research
"In fact, no
peer-reviewed publications of clinical studies on the human health effects of GM food
exist."
What leading
scientists have said about the dangers of genetically modified foods
NATURAL
LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex