GM: New study shows unborn babies could be harmed
Mortality
rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a diet
of modified soya
By Geoffrey
Lean, Environment Editor
The
Independent on Sunday, 08 January 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article337253.ece
Women who
eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies,
startling new research suggests.
The study -
carried out by a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences -
found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on modified soya
died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born
to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also severely
underweight.
The
research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a
clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages
human health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected
the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long
attempt to develop modified peas when an official study found they
caused lung damage.
And last
May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant
Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller
kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to
their immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional
one.
The United
Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation held a workshop on the
safety of genetically modified foods at its Rome headquarters late last
year. The workshop was addressed by scientists whose research had
raised concerns about health dangers. But the World Trade Organisation
is expected next month to support a bid by the Bush administration to
force European countries to accept GM foods.
The Russian
research threatens to have an explosive effect on already hostile
public opinion. Carried out by Dr Irina Ermakova at the Institute of
Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, it is believed to be the first to look at the effects of GM
food on the unborn.
The
scientist added flour from a GM soya bean - produced by Monsanto to be
resistant to its pesticide, Roundup - to the food of female rats,
starting two weeks before they conceived, continuing through pregnancy,
birth and nursing. Others were given non-GM soyaand a third group was
given no soya at all.
She found
that 36 per cent of the young of the rats fed the modified soya were
severely underweight, compared to 6 per cent of the offspring of the
other groups. More alarmingly, a staggering 55.6 per cent of those born
to mothers on the GM diet perished within three weeks of birth,
compared to 9 per cent of the offspring of those fed normal soya, and
6.8 per cent of the young of those given no soya at all.
"The
morphology and biochemical structures of rats are very similar to those
of humans, and this makes the results very disturbing" said Dr
Ermakova.
"They point
to a risk for mothers and their babies."
Environmentalists
say that - while the results are preliminary - they are potentially so
serious that they must be followed up. The American Academy of
Environmental Medicine has asked the US National Institute of Health to
sponsor an immediate, independent follow-up.
The
Monsanto soya is widely eaten by Americans. There is little of it, or
any GM crop, in British foods though it is imported to feed animals
farmed for meat.
Tony
Coombes, director of corporate affairs for Monsanto UK, said: "The
overwhelming weight of evidence from published, peer-reviewed,
independently conducted scientific studies demonstrates that Roundup
Ready soy can be safely consumed by rats, as well as all other animal
species studied."
What the
experiment found
Russian
scientists added flour made from a GM soya to the diet of female rats
two weeks before mating them, and continued feeding it to them during
pregnancy, birth and nursing. Others were give non-GM soya or none at
all. Six times as many of the offspring of those fed the modified soya
were severely underweight compared to those born to the rats given
normal diets.
Within
three weeks, 55.6 per cent of the young of the mothers given the
modified soya died, against 9 per cent of the offspring of those fed
the conventional soya.
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