Fresh row over GM foods

Fresh row over GM foods as French study claims rats fed the controversial crops suffered tumours

• French team claim bestselling brand of GM corn caused tumours and multiple organ damage
  
• Leading scientists have questioned the study and its results, claiming it has 'no value'
  

• Rats fed a lifelong diet of one of
  the bestselling strains of genetically modified corn suffered tumours
  and multiple organ damage, according to a controversial French study
  published today.
  

The report is set to reignite the debate over whether GM crops are safe.
It has already sparked a major row with scientist who claims the study has 'no value'.



The French team has released shocking images of
tumours in mice caused by exclusively eating GM corn. However, the
research has been criticised as being of 'no value' by other scientists.

Gilles-Eric Seralini of the
University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet containing
NK603 - a seed variety from crop giant Monsanto made tolerant to
dousings of the bestselling weedkiller Roundup - or given water
containing Roundup at levels permitted in the United States died earlier
than those on a standard diet.

The animals on the GM diet suffered mammary tumours, as well as severe liver and kidney damage.

The
researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females died
prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control
group.

Seralini
was part of a team that flagged previous safety concerns based on a
shorter rat study in a scientific paper published in December 2009 but
this takes things a step further by tracking the animals throughout
their two-year lifespan.

Monsanto said at the time of the earlier research that the French researchers had reached 'unsubstantiated conclusions.'
Monsanto
was not immediately available for comment but the group has in the past
repeatedly said its products are safe and there is no credible evidence
of any health risk to humans or animals from consuming GM crops.
Seralini
believes his latest lifetime rat tests give a more realistic and
authoritative view of risks than the 90-day feeding trials that form the
basis of GM crop approvals, since three months is only the equivalent
of early adulthood in rats.

However, in an unusual move, the research
group behind the research did not allow reporters to seek outside comment on their paper
before its publication in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical
Toxicology.
It is expected to create particular
waves in France, where fierce opposition to genetically modified
organisms (GMOs) led to a ban on growing such plants.

France's
Jose Bove, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's commission for
agriculture and known as a fierce opponent of GM, called for an
immediate suspension of all EU cultivation and import authorisations of
GM crops.
'This study
finally shows we are right and that it is urgent to quickly review all
GMO evaluation processes,' he said in a statement.
'National
and European food security agencies must carry out new studies financed
by public funding to guarantee healthy food for European consumers.'

However, scientists from around the world have questioned the validity of the research.




Major doubts have been raised over the safety of
GM foods by a new study which found they can cause tumours and organ
damage in mice.
Ottoline Leyser, Associate Director of the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, said: 'Like most of the GM debate, this work has very little to do with GM.

'The authors of the paper do not suggest that the effects are caused by genetic modification.

'They
describe effects of the roundup herbicide itself and effects that they
attribute to the activity of the enzyme introduced into the roundup
resistant maize.

'There
is good evidence that introducing genes in to crops using GM techniques
results in fewer changes to the crops than introducing them using
conventional breeding.
'This is unfortunately rather a subtle point and is somewhat tangential to the immediate issue.'
Anthony
Trewavas, Professor of Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, said:
'The control group is inadequate to make any deduction.

'Only
10 rodents so far as I can see and some of these develop tumours. Until
you know the degree of variation in 90 or 180 (divided into groups of
ten) control rodents these results are of no value.

'That
is what should have been done and no doubt reflects the predetermined
bias of the experimenters and the funding groups that they don’t
appreciate that a control group was essential for each treatment.
'These
figures for normal appearance of tumours in these rodent lines are
surely available and using a line which is very susceptible to tumours
can easily bias any result.

'To be frank it looks like random variation to me in a rodent line likely to develop tumours anyway.'
The French team has also been accused of making their research difficult to analyse.

Alan Boobis, Professor of Biochemical
Pharmacology, Imperial College London, said: 'Some of the effects are
presented in a way that makes it difficult to evaluate their
significance.

'For example, there does not appear to be a statistical analysis of the mammary tumours.

'These occur quite often in untreated animals.

'One would usually also take into account the historical controls in the testing lab, in reaching a conclusion.

'The pesticide itself has been subject to long term studies in rodents by others.'
Mark
Tester, Research Professor, Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics, University of Adelaide, said: 'The first thing that leaps to
my mind is why has nothing emerged from epidemiological studies in the
countries where so much GM has been in the food chain for so long?

'If
the effects are as big as purported, and if the work really is relevant
to humans, why aren’t the North Americans dropping like flies?!

'GM has been in the food chain for over a decade over there – and longevity continues to increase inexorably!
'And
if the effects are as big as claimed, why have none of the previous
100+ plus studies by reputable scientists, in refereed journals, noticed
anything at all?'


Source:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2205509/Fresh-fears-GM-foods-French-study-finds-rats-fed-controversial-crops-suffered-tumours-multiple-organ-failure.html