Brussels, 19/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The forthcoming publication of the final opinion of EFSA on the study by Séralini et al, due out in the next few days (EUROPE 10731), has prompted a number of French MEPs to call, in an open letter to the European Commission, for more transparency in the studies to assess risks to health and the environment generated by GMOs and pesticides. In their request made on 16 November, these MEPs, who are members of the ENVI committee of the Parliament, are calling for the public to have access to data and for toxicity studies of over two years to be made obligatory. The study by Séralini et al, which came in for harsh criticism for failing to respect the international protocols applicable to this type of long-term study, was conducted over two years and to this date constitutes the longest ever carried out (EUROPE 10722).
"It is absolutely vital that the raw data from these studies, whether they are carried out by Monsanto or by independent researchers, are accessible on a public website in a statistically exploitable form. There should be total transparency on these studies and no more confidentiality agreements, making independent European counter-expertise impossible", states the French MEP Michèle Rivasi, vice-president of the Greens/EFA group, who is behind this open letter (our translation throughout). Corinne Lepage (ALDE, France), rapporteur for the legislation aiming to allow the Member States to ban or restrict the use on their territory of GMOs authorised by the EU, takes the view that the "European Commission must, as a priority, modify the guidelines on assessing the risks of GMOs to make toxicity studies of a minimum of two years on the health impact of GMOs obligatory". And France's Sophie Auconie (EPP) d added: "we need independent, comparative and long-term scientific studies. The Commission must implement the resources needed to reassure the citizens about the safety of their food, as soon as possible". (AN/transl.fl)