Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert on GMOs, studied Monsanto’s dossier on the 90-day feeding trials it had undertaken prior to the original licensing of Roundup Ready corn, and noticed certain health irregularities had occurred. These were dismissed by Monsanto as not being biologically significant. But he decided to run a 700-day (lifetime) trial to explore the longer term health outcomes of this GM variety of maize on these rats and also the impact of traces of Roundup in their drinking water. In September 2012, Prof Séralini announced the findings of his trials research. The research had just been published in a peer reviewed journal and the press briefing was organised by the Sustainable Food Trust. His study found that rats fed either on Roundup-Ready corn or on drinking water containing low levels of the herbicide developed serious health problems, including liver and kidney disorders in the male rats and a dramatic increase in mammary tumours in the female rats. The Sustainable Food Trust took the decision to organise the London press briefing because we felt the evidence of harmful health outcomes called into question the safety of Roundup Ready corn and also of Roundup itself, the most popular herbicide in the world, widely regarded as safe. The Séralini research, at the very least, justified an immediate replication of the trials and called into question whether the duration of the studies designed to assess the safety of all GM crops was adequate.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:12:40 +0000
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