Brussels, 19/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Publication on Wednesday 19 September of a scientific study showing the toxicity of genetically modified maize on rats has brought consternation to the European Parliament. Corinne Lepage (ALDE, France), rapporteur on the proposal for a law authorising member states to limit or ban cultivation within their borders of GMOs that have been authorised in the EU, immediately called on the European Commission to suspend authorisation of genetically modified maize NK603 from Monsanto and to toughen assessment of health risks associated with GMOs. José Bové (Greens/EFA, France), the deputy chairman of the Parliament's agriculture committee, also called for the Commission immediately to suspend authorisations to grow and import GMOs.
In a press release, Lepage said: “I call on the Commission to suspend authorisation of maize NK603 and to significantly improve its new guidelines on evaluation of GMOs which don't even make provision for strengthening tests on the effects of ingestion by rats or making them compulsory in all cases”. She urges member states to “immediately to undertake studies on rats fed for two years on GMOs consumed in Europe so as to determine the potential impact on human health, and to make available means not available to CRIIGEN (Commitee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering), so as to increase the validity of the statistical calculations”. She says, too, that the Commission should put in place “compulsory labelling of products from animals fed on GMOs in order to allow consumers to choose food which contains no GMOs”. Bové formally called on European Consumer Protection Commissioner John Dalli to “immediately suspend all authorisation to grow granted to the MON810 maize variety from Monsanto and to the BASF Amflora potato, and also authorisation to import transgenic maize and soya”. The results of the study by the team led by Prof. Séralini of Caen University, published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, show that a significant number of rats fed over a period of two years on maize NK603 - a genetically modified maize immune to RoundUp, a total herbicide from Monsanto -developped tumours. Prof Séralini, joint author of the study, is a member of CRIIGEN, which used to be chaired by Corinne Lepage. (AN/transl.fl)