The Independent
22 May 2005
When fed to rats it affected their kidneys and blood counts. So what might it do to humans? We think you should be told
The secret research we reveal today raises the potential health risks of genetically modified foods. Here, environment editor Geoffrey Lean, who has led this paper’s campaign on GM technology for the past six years, examines the new evidence. And he asks the questions that must concern us all: why is Monsanto, the company trying to sell GM corn to Britain and Europe, so reluctant to publish the full results of its alarming tests on lab rats? Why are our leaders so keen to buy the unproven technology against the wishes of consumers? And why is the man who first raised these concerns six years ago shunned by the scientific establishment and his former political masters?
[MORE]
Leaked Monsanto GM report causes uproar
25/05/2005
Published details of a Monsanto report are at the center of a new storm over whether genetically modified (GM) food could be harmful to human health, writes Anthony Fletcher
Details of the report, published by the Independent on Sunday in the UK, are alleged to show that rats fed the genetically modified (GM) corn MON 863 developed internal abnormalities, while these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.
The controversy comes as the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol summit meets in Montreal this week to discuss issues such as bulk labeling of GM crops and state liability in cases of contamination. Unsurprisingly therefore, food safety campaigners have pounced on the disclosure.
“Monsanto’s refusal to hand over animal feeding studies concerning its biotech corn is outrageous” Bill Freese, research analyst for Friends of the Earth US told FoodNavigator-USA.com
via GM WATCH
FOR THE ATTENTION OF MR TONY COOMBES
info@monsanto.co.uk
Mr Tony Coombes
Head of Corporate Affairs
Monsanto UK
24th May 2005
Dear Mr Coombes,
The following information relating to the MON863 controversy has been sent to me (pasted at base of this letter). You are being disingenuous (to put it mildly) in your explanation as to why the 90-day MON863 rat feeding study has not been put in the public domain. FSANZ decided that it did NOT contain “confidential business information”, and it is a scandal that the EC accepted your assurances that it did. If there is anything genuinely sensitive in the full study (for example detail on GM characterization or “manufacturing”), feel free to wipe it out; but let us see the rest of it, as you should according to the terms of the relevant EU legislation. The only commercial advantage your competitors would gain from seeing your results would be to make sure that they don’t seek to develop any remotely similar maize line!
Technical reports containing research results are often put into the public domain, as you know full well; and so they should be, since “industry” reports have a tendency to be directed or specifically written as an aid to the obtaining of consents. If they will not stand up under peer review they should not be used in support of the applicant in the approvals process.
Now I come to your despicable treatment of Dr Arpad Pusztai on your web site. You have named him in several places, and even referred to “The Pusztai Report” — in the full knowledge that he cannot respond because you have forced him to sign a Declaration of Secrecy with the German BfN. So he cannot defend himself, and neither can we, the members of the public, judge whether your criticisms of him are justified. This does not say a lot about your respect for natural justice.
If Dr Pusztai is prepared to defend his comments in an open scientific forum, and if you have nothing to hide, you should permit all of the research information on MON863 into the public domain.
We therefore ask you three simple questions:
1. Will you now, in response to the current intense public debate on the safety of MON863, release the full 90-day rat feeding study into the public domain?
2. Will you release Dr Pusztai and the German BfN from their Declarations of Secrecy and allow them to freely express their concerns about the rat feeding study?
3. Will you publish Dr Pusztai’s comments in full on your web site, or at the very least provide a hyperlink to another web site where they are published?
If you do not accede to these requests, I am afraid that we shall all have to accept that Monsanto does have something to hide; that it is prepared to corrupt the scientific enterprise; and that it wants nothing to do with conventional scientific debate. We will then be able to draw our own conclusions as to whether MON863 is harmful or not.
I look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency.
Yours sincerely
Dr Brian John