Environmental

New Research Offers Strongest Proof Yet of Roundup and GMO Toxicity


MAINE–(ENEWSPF)–September 20, 2012.  

Many rats fed with corn that was genetically modified to resist the weed killer known as Roundup developed tumors within two years.

The latest scientific study linking the weed killer known as Roundup to cancer and other negative health impacts has put the French government on high alert, according to a report published yesterday.

The study, published by a team of French scientists led by Gilles-Eric Seralini at the University of Caen in Normandy, found that many rats fed with corn genetically modified to resist Roundup — or exposed directly to the world’s most common weedkiller — developed cancerous tumors. This time, according to the scientists, the results examined the full lifecycle effects of Roundup rather than short-term impacts.

“For the first time ever, a (genetically modified) organism and an herbicide (Roundup) have been evaluated for their long-term impact on health, and more thoroughly than by governments or the industry,” Seralini said. “The results are alarming.”

The study (Seralini_et_al_final_paper (1)) was shown to “clearly demonstrate” that exposure to Roundup at levels well below published safety levels “induce sever hormone-dependent mammary, hepatic and kidney disturbances.” The French government immediately ordered its leading health organization to probe the study — and may ultimately ban importation of genetically modified corn from the United States.

“Based on the conclusion…, the government will ask the European authorities to take all necessary measures to protect human and animal health, measures that could go as far as an emergency suspension of imports of (genetically modified) maize in the European Union,” the French health, environment and farm ministries said in a joint statement.

Michael Antoniou, a molecular biologist at King’s College London, told the news agency Reuters, “I feel this data is strong enough to withdraw the marketing approval for this variety of GMO maize temporarily, until this study is followed up and repeated with larger number of animals to get the full statistical power that we want.”

While accounting for an estimated 80 percent of all the corn grown in the United States, genetically modified crops have not gained favor in Europe where most nations do not allow it to be grown. Voters in the state of California will consider Proposition 37 this fall, a law that would legally require genetically modified foods to be labeled.

Perhaps this new study will give proponents of the bill new impetus as they battle the tens of millions of dollars donated by America’s major food corporations.

Predictably, however, proponents of genetically modified food — including many connected to the U.S. government — denounced this new study as the news began circulating yesterday.

Henry I. Miller, founding director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Biotechnology, called the Seralini study “rubbish,” according to a San Francisco newspaper

Source:  http://www.safelawns.org


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