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Potential Health Dangers from GM Foods: Q&A

11/01/2009 14:07:00 admin

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What potential dangers can GM foods post to humans?

Genetically Modified Foods may cause new diseases, antibiotic resistant disease and nutritional problems that are normally caused by toxins, allergens and carcinogens.

For more information, read all 65 health risks of GM foods, excerpted from Jeffrey Smith's comprehensive book Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods.

Hasn’t research proved GM foods are safe for humans?

Research has not yet proved that GMO is safe for humans. Only one study done with humans showed that GMOs survived inside the stomach of the people eating GM food. No follow-up studies were conducted.

Animal studies showed eating GMO food resulted in pre-cancerous cell growth, damaged immune systems, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partial atrophy, or increased density of the liver, odd shaped cell nuclei and other unexplained anomalies, false pregnancies and higher death rates.

But didn’t some studies show GM foods are chemically the same as the conventional foods?

Although some studies compared GM foods with their conventional counterparts for chemical composition, like fatty acids and protein etc, most tests can’t determine the differences at the level of the DNA.

The difference is there. Eyewitness reports from all over North America describe how several types of animals, including cows, pigs, geese, elk, deer, squirrels, and rats, when given a choice, avoid eating GM foods.

Haven’t people been eating GM foods without any ill effect?

The biotech industry claims that millions have been eating GM foods without ill effect. This is not accurate and actually misleading. The fact is no one monitors human health impacts of GM foods, or has done studies on the effects of GM foods on human health. Also, not all toxic effects manifest in hours or days. It takes years or even decades for many diseases to develop. Animal studies have demonstrated that GM foods may potentially pose health dangers to humans.

How could you definitively say that GM foods are causing problems?

One observation is that soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50 percent.

In March 2001, the United States Center for Disease Control reported that food is responsible for twice the number of illnesses in the U.S. compared to estimates just seven years earlier. This increase roughly corresponds to the period when Americans began eating GM food.

Of course, without follow-up tests, which neither the industry nor the government are doing, we can’t be absolutely sure if genetic engineering was the cause.

What about GM hormones in milk?

Milk from rBGH-treated cows contains an increased amount of the hormone IGF-1, which is known as one of the highest risk factors for breast and prostate cancer; but no one is tracking this in relation to cancer rates. European countries and Canada ban US milk because of the hormone, according to

preventcancer.com.

Why do genetically engineered foods contain antibiotic resistant genes?

Genetic engineering is all about manipulation of genes. When genes are inserted into a carrier DNA, genetic engineers need to make sure the DNA picks up the genes. To identify strains that have had genes inserted into the carrier DNA, marker genes that are resistant to antibiotics are used.

The marker genes are resistant to antibiotics that are commonly used in human and veterinary medicine. Some scientists believe that eating GE food containing these marker genes may lead gut bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance.

But are there any GMO-induced adverse effects in humans documented?

One incident associated with use of GMO has been reported. In this case, a GM brand of the food supplement L-tryptophan, an amino acid, killed about 100 Americans and caused sickness or disability in about 5,000-1000 others in the 1980's.

Why are children particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of GM foods?

This is because:

   1. Young, fast-developing bodies are influenced most.
   2. Children are more susceptible to allergies.
   3. Children are more susceptible to problems with milk.
   4. Children are more susceptible to nutritional problems.
   5. Children are in danger from antibiotic resistant diseases.

How dangerous, or potentially dangerous, are GM foods relative to other food dangers, e.g., pesticides, irradiation, additives, preservatives?

There is no way of knowing the relative risk compared to other food risks because little research has been done on the safety of GM foods. One troublesome fact is that GM crops persist in the environment, and may continue to pose risks to health for centuries.

In addition, transfer of transgenes to gut bacteria may present long-term chronic exposure, since the foreign protein may continue to be produced inside of us after we no longer consume the GM food.

By Jeffery Smith at responsibletechnology.org and editing by David Liu and Rachel Stockton.

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Comments (2 posted):

Georgia on 11/06/2009 16:26:29

Why has the WHO not yet learned this information,especially when almost all of continent knows this?

portable dvd player on 03/18/2011 15:21:36

this is true that It takes years or even decades for many diseases to develop. people keep saying that it doesnot cause any ill and people are eating them without any harm . people need to know about GM foods