French panel rejects study linking GM corn to cancer
FRANCE: An investigative panel on Monday rejected a contested French
study that linked genetically-modified corn to cancer in rats but called
for a "long-term, independent" probe into the issue to advise the
public.
The Higher Biotechnologies Council (HCB) said it found "no causal
relationship" between the rats' tumours and consumption of Monsanto's
NK603 GM corn or the Roundup herbicide that was part of the experiment.
The experiment's methods were also "unsuitable," it said, in a report
made at the government's request.
"The scientific committee (of the HCB) concludes that the study
provides no scientific information regarding the detection of any health
risk linked to NK603 corn, whether it was treated with Roundup or not."
"The HCB's Economic, Ethical and Social Committee, for its part, affirms
that the study is not conclusive.
"However, in order to answer the public's questions, the committee
recommends that a long-term, independent, transparent study, with
adversarial views, be undertaken under government auspices." In
September, a team of researchers led by Gilles-Eric Seralini at the
University of Caen, published a long-term study that said rats fed with
Monsanto's NK603 corn and/or doses of Roundup developed tumours.
The paper, published in a peer-reviewed science journal, unleashed a
storm in environmentally-sensitive Europe, where GM products are subject
to widespread restrictions.
NK603 has been engineered to make it resistant to Monsanto's
herbicide Roundup. This enables farmers to douse fields with the weed
killer in a single go, thus offering substantial savings.
Seralini said his experiment was the first to test GM corn rodents'
normal lifespan of two years, as opposed to the standard 90 days. Two
hundred male and female rats were split into 10 groups of 10 animals.
One was a "control" group which was given ordinary rat food that
contained 33 percent non-GM corn, and plain water.
Three groups were given ordinary rat food and water with increasing
doses of Roundup, reflecting various concentrations of the herbicide in
the food chain.
The other six were fed rat food of which 11, 22 or 33 percent
comprised NK603 corn, either treated or not with Roundup when the corn
was grown.
The researchers said they found that NK603 and Roundup both caused
similar damage to the rats' health, whether they were consumed together
or on their own. AFP
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