Food Scandal Exposed
The story that changed the GM debate in the UK
Guardian Unlimited, Friday February 12, 1999
By Michael Sean Gillard, Laurie Flynn and Andy Rowell
Twenty international scientists have signed an unprecedented memorandum supporting the controversial findings of suppressed research which found that rats fed on genetically modified potatoes suffered a weakened immune system and damage to vital organs.
In a report published for the first time today, the scientists from 13 countries also demand the immediate professional rehabilitation of the British scientist, Dr Arpad Pusztai, who discovered these preliminary findings last year and was forced to retire after speaking out about his concerns. Dr Pusztai's pioneering research into the effects of GM crops on animal nutrition and the environment included feeding genetically modified (GM) potatoes to rats to determine for the first time whether they had any harmful effects on their guts, bodies, metabolism and immune system.
The unexpected results of the pounds 1.6 million Scottish Office-funded research project showed that after 10 days of feeding trials the development of the kidney, thymus, spleen and gut were adversely affected. The research also showed the rats' immune systems were weakened.
The Guardian can also reveal that the rats' brain size decreased. Dr Pusztai did not publish this at the time because he judged the political repercussions would be too severe.
A more recent piece of research on the same rats by senior pathologist, Dr Stanley Ewen, of Aberdeen University Medical School, is understood to validate Dr Pusztai's preliminary findings and points towards new potential health risks.
Dr Ewen found that rats fed the GM potatoes used in Dr Pusztai's experiments suffered from an enlarged stomach wall after 10 days of feeding trials.
The implications for the biotech industry, already suffering from a public backlash against GM foods, could be severe, says Dr Vyvyan Howard, a foetal and infant toxico-pathologist at Liverpool University, who also signed the memorandum.
'What this means for the industry is that they will have to do rigorous hazard assessment and do it repeatedly and monitor it.'
Jonathan Rhodes, Professor of Medicine at Liverpool University, said: 'One key problem that keeps coming back time and again is that regulation of food is nothing like as strict as the regulation for drugs. And when you start tinkering around with the genetic structure of food you have to move towards thinking of food products as pharmaceuticals.'
The memorandum demands an immediate funding programme to research the effects further and determine the causes.
If it can be shown that the lectin, a naturally occuring insect resistant protein inserted into the potato, was responsible, this could implicate GM crops containing other lectins, namely Bt toxin. Last year there were approximately 7.7 million hectares of these crops, such as maize, planted worldwide. The maize is found in various forms, such as corn flour and tortilla chips, in British supermarkets.
However, some scientists believe that the problem may lie with one of the key genes that forms part of the genetic engineering process itself. The so-called cauliflower mosiac promoter is used in most GM foods available in the UK, such as soya, present in an estimated 60 per cent of processed foodstuffs.
It was these far reaching implications for one of the world's most aggressively expanding industries, that put Dr Pusztai in the eye of the storm since last August when he spoke out on ITV's World In Action.
He said he would not eat GM potatoes and found it 'very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs.'
Some of the scientists who have viewed the evidence believe that the circumstances surrounding Dr Pusztai's removal and the closing down of his research team cannot be understood outside of political and commercial parameters.
The Aberdeen-based Rowett Institute, where the research was done, said at the time of his removal that they were unhappy with his having made public the results of preliminary research which had not been subject to peer review. He was subsequently exonerated by an internal inquiry.
Andy Rowell
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