Ireland: Evidence should be scrutinised over the safety of genetically modified food
Irish Medical News, Letters, 15 October 2007 From GM watch archives
I welcome the letter from Prof Moses (IMN, 27/8/2007) in relation to the safety of genetically engineered foods. Prof Moses quite rightly questions the validity of scientific experiments that are not peer-reviewed, and in addition, the importance of accurate information when ascertaining the causes of outbreaks of illness.
Unfortunately, information on both of these issues is in short supply. Biotechnology companies rarely allow their studies to be subject to such scrutiny, and as a result, there are only limited data in peer- reviewed journals concerning the safety of GM food, although calls have been made for such studies to be made available in the literature.
While Prof Moses states, ''We must not forget that GM foods have been consumed by hundreds of millions of people for more than a decade without a single confirmed adverse health effect.'' I would like to ask who is checking the absence of adverse health effects?
The Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta is reported to have stated that evaluating the public health implications from the inadvertent introduction of StarLinkT corn into the human food supply in the US posed a challenging retrospective task.
The difficulties of this investigation highlight the importance of evaluating the allergic potential of genetically modified foods before they become available for human consumption. This is where feeding trials, or in this case their absence, should be centre stage.
Indeed, one of the conclusions of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on ''Allergenicity of Foods derived from Biotechnology'' in January 2001, stated that post-market surveillance is a valuable tool in the monitoring of adverse effects and long term sequelae of foods derived from biotechnology.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is not undertaking any such surveillance, neither am I aware of such surveillance being undertaken in other countries.
Epigenetics is now coming to the fore. Epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression that occur without a change in DNA sequence and can complicate the genetic manipulation of plants.
The potential health impacts of genetically enginered food is too serious an issue to ignore any longer. We are guinea pigs in a global experiment, but in which nobody is monitoring the results. The issue is of profound importance; surely feeding trials cannot be too much to ask?
Dr Elizabeth Cullen
Thomastown
Kilcullen, Co. Kildare