Brussels, 22/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Another snub to the scientific work carried out by Professor Gilles-Eric Séralini has been delivered. On Monday 22 October, the French government explained that the opinion of the relevant French authorities with regard to the study on the toxicity of genetically modified NK 603 maize and Monsanto's Round Up total herbicide published on 19 September are not likely to undermine previous scientific examinations. This will add grist to the mill of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which on 4 October rejected in a preliminary opinion, the validity of the publication by Séralini et al. by identifying conceptual errors and mistakes in the methodology and analysis (EUROPE 10703). Nonetheless, France will maintain its moratorium on the cultivation of GMOs authorised in the EU. This effectively means Paris is calling for total review of the European system for assessing, or authorising and inspecting GMOs as demanded by France.
The opinions reached by the Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire (ANSES) and the Haut Conseil des Biotechnologies (HCB) on the validity and the consequences to draw from the Séralini study, “converge with those by the German and Dutch evaluation authorities. They conclude that the results from the study will not necessarily undermine the previous health assessments of these products due to the significant bias in the protocol and the data analysis. On this basis, there is therefore no reason to challenge the authorisation granted to NK603 maize and the Roundup herbicide”, explained a joint press release by the four ministers concerned.
On the other hand, the French government has agreed with the proposal made by the ANSES to extend studies on the long-term effects of consuming GMOs and pesticides, which are expected to encourage these themes to be examined at national and EU levels. The prime minister has called on the minister for agriculture, food and forestry, the minister for ecology, sustainable development and energy and the minister-delegate for consumers to take the government's request for a European level bottom-up review of the Community mechanism for assessing, authorising and inspecting GMOs and pesticides, added the press release. In this context, France reaffirms the determination of the French government to maintain the moratorium on GMOs in France authorised in the EU.
Supplementary information on the study carried out by Séralini et al. as requested by the EFSA from the co-authors of the publication have not been provided because the scientist stipulated a preliminary condition of the publication by EFSA of all scientific elements underpinning its decisions to authorise GMOs (EUROPE 10693). In response, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle the executive director of EFSA said that these elements had been published on request because there are no secrets about the sequence of the gene. She provided this reply on 12 October in response to questions by a small group of journalists in Brussels. (AN/trans/fl)