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HEALTH: U.S. CONCERN OVER HEALTH EFFECTS OF ...
COMTEX Newswire
WASHINGTON, (Oct. 22) 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 U.S. public health researchers.
About 40 genetically modified (GM) crops appear in a variety of
food products now available on the U.S. 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.
"What we are seeing is that there are, in fact, new affects created
(by GM foods)," said 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," said
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 in 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, said Michael Hansen, a senior researcher at the Consumers
Union, a Washington-based advocacy organization.
"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 said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of
Agriculture test for immediate safety of GM products.
But they, like 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, said 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, said 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 said.
Since GM foods are not labeled 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
antibiotic "marker gene" that are commonly used to trace gene
transfers. All genetically engineered products have antibiotic
marker genes.
After GM food is absorbed into the human digestive trace, these
antibiotic genes could move from what we have eaten into the blood
stream or into the bacteria in the intestines, said 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 said there is a "vanishingly small" risk that antibiotic marker
genes will be transferred to disease-causing bacteria.
Copyright 1999
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