The Independent on Sunday

Rats fed GM corn due for sale in Britain developed abnormalities in blood and kidneys

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
22 May 2005

Rats fed on a diet rich in genetically modified corn developed abnormalities to internal organs and changes to their blood, raising fears that human health could be affected by eating GM food.

Including by-line by Severin Carrell and SpinWatch' Andy Rowell 

The lone  doctor who first exposed the risks to humans

The Independent on Sunday can today reveal details of secret research carried out by Monsanto, the GM food giant, which shows that rats fed the modified corn had smaller kidneys and variations in the composition of their blood.

According to the confidential 1,139-page report, these health problems were absent from another batch of rodents fed non-GM food as part of the research project.

The disclosures come as European countries, including Britain, prepare to vote on whether the GM-modified corn should go on sale to the public. A vote last week by the European Union failed to secure agreement over whether the product should be sold here, after Britain and nine other countries voted in favour.

However, the disclosure of the health effects on the Monsanto rats has intensified the row over whether the corn is safe to eat without further research. Doctors said the changes in the blood of the rodents could indicate that the rat's immune system had been damaged or that a disorder such as a tumour had grown and the system was mobilising to fight it.

Dr Vyvyan Howard, a senior lecturer on human anatomy and cell biology at Liverpool University, called for the publication of the full study, saying the summary gave "prima facie cause for concern".

Dr Michael Antoniu, an expert in molecular genetics at Guy's Hospital Medical School, described the findings as "very worrying from a medical point of view", adding: "I have been amazed at the number of significant differences they found [in the rat experiment]."

Although Monsanto last night dismissed the abnormalities in rats as meaningless and due to chance, reflecting normal variations between rats, a senior British government source said ministers were so worried by the findings that they had called for further information.

Environmentalists will see the findings as vindication of British research seven years ago, which suggested that rats that ate GM potatoes suffered damage to their health. That research, which was roundly denounced by ministers and the British scientific establishment, was halted and Dr Arpad Pusztai, the scientist behind the controversial findings, was forced into retirement amid a huge row over the claim.

Dr Pusztai reported a "huge list of significant differences" between rats fed GM and conventional corn, saying the results strongly indicate that eating significant amounts of it can damage health. The new study is into a corn, codenamed MON 863, which has been modified by Monsanto to protect itself against corn rootworm, which the company describes as "one of the most pernicious pests affecting maize crops around the world".

Now, however, any decision to allow the corn to be marketed in the UK will cause widespread alarm. The full details of the rat research are included in the main report, which Monsanto refuses to release on the grounds that "it contains confidential business information which could be of commercial use to our competitors".

A Monsanto spokesman said yesterday: "If any such well-known anti-biotech critics had doubts about the credibility of these studies they should have raised them with the regulators. After all, MON 863 isn't new, having been approved to be as safe as conventional maize by nine other global authorities since 2003."

The lone  doctor who first exposed the risks to humans

by Severin Carrell and Andy Rowell 

It was a startling and  sensational claim - a claim aired on prime-time national television.  Rats fed on genetically modified potatoes had suffered serious damage  to their immune systems and shown stunted growth.

This result,  said Dr Arpad Pusztai, the scientist involved, was immensely worrying,  since it raised substantial questions about the safety of GM food. "I  find it is very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea pigs," he  remarked.

Dr Pusztai's claims - broadcast by World in Action, one of the  nation's most respected current affairs programmes - provoked one of  the most intense scientific rows of the decade.

The backlash  was orchestrated by ministers, led by Jack Cunningham, then New  Labour's "Cabinet enforcer", and by the British scientific establishment.

Dr Pusztai, pictured, was a world authority on the  subject, and his remarks, in August 1998, had come at a crucial time  for Tony Blair. It ignited a public debate on the safety of GM foods,  at a time when the Prime Minister was committing the UK to take a  leading role in the bio-tech revolution.

That brief interview  left Dr Pusztai's career in ruins.

That Monday evening, Professor Philip  James, the head of Dr Pusztai's research centre, the Rowett Research  Institute, had congratulated the Hungarian scientist on his television  appearance.

Over the next 48 hours, Dr Pusztai and some of his colleagues  allege that Professor James took two angry calls from Downing Street -  a claim the professor denies. Yet by Wednesday, the Rowett had  retracted Dr Pusztai's findings.

Its senior officials alleged  the Hungarian had admitted he had misrepresented his findings. Rather  than being fed GM potatoes, they claimed, the rats were given ordinary  potatoes spiked with a protein which the extra genes might have  made.

They also stated these were preliminary findings which had not  gone through normal peer-review. In short, said Professor James, Dr  Pusztai should not have gone public.

Dr Pusztai still refutes  these charges. His study was funded by the Scottish Office's  agriculture department. His research was designed to test the  environmental safety of using GM potatoes with a toxin, lectin,  added.

In 2001, he told a Royal Commission on GMOs in New Zealand it was  the GM potatoes that produced the startling finding. The Rowett's  tests showed that the GM potatoes were "significantly different" from  normal potatoes. Yet, in May 1999, a panel of Royal  Society-appointed toxicologists branded his research  flawed.

And that was enough for Dr Cunningham to re-enter the debate.  Dr Pusztai's findings were "not valid", he said.

But Dr Pusztai  may yet emerge as a prophet. The revelations about Monsanto's secret  GM corn research may confirm that this pro-GM scientist has become a  hero of the anti-GM movement.