|
|
De:
Luiz Meira <luizmeira@aleph.com.br>
Data: Ter Ago 17, 1999 3:10
am
Assunto: [gen-ocidio] pureza, alergia, poluicao
|
> Mothers for Natural Law
> Biweekly News 99/08/16
>
> Thanks to Dennis Dey and Richard Wolfson for these items.
>
> 1. Swiss soiled seed prompts tolerance question
> 2. UK: GM soya milk gives children herpes, senior surgeon tells
> the Government
> 9. Canadian farmers seek compensation for "genetic pollution"
>
> ------------------
>
> Nature Biotechnology, Volume 17 / July 1999 Page 629
>
> Swiss Soiled Seed Prompts Tolerance Question
>
> by Ingeborg Furst
>
> On July 1, the Swiss government's tolerance standard for genetic
> purity of food comes into effect. Switzerland is the first
> country in Europe to set a limit for genetic contamination, but
> current controversy over genetically contaminated corn seeds
> highlights the urgent EU-wide need for such a standard for crops.
>
> In May, it was discovered by the Swiss Department of Agriculture
> (Budesamt fur Landwirtschaft; Bern) and the district president of
> Baden-Wurtlemberg (Tubingen, Germany) that Pioneer Hi-Bred's (Des
> Moines, IA) nongenetically modified corn seed varieties, Ulla and
> Benicia, actually contained novel genes from a variety of corn
> genetically modified to be resistant to the corn borer, Bacillus
> thuringiensis.
>
> Contamination of the seeds, which were harvested in the United
> States, was "probably caused by stray pollen during the growing
> season," says Ulrich Schmidt, managing director of Pioneer in
> Buxtehude, Germany, which represents the grain manufacturer in
> Switzerland. It is likely that incorporation of pollen from GM
> varieties into Ulla and Benicia occurred this way because
> "Pioneer does not offer a commercial GM variety of Ulla or
> Benicia."
>
> Before the contamination was discovered, Pioneer had sold enough
> Ulla and Benicia seeds to sow 400 hectares (roughly 0.5% of total
> corn cultivation in Switzerland), about 200 hectares of which had
> already been planted.
>
> Estimates of the amount of genetic contamination of non-GM DNA by
> GM DNA vary between 0.1 and 0.5% -- respectively below the limit
> set in both countries for contamination resulting from physical
> mixing of varieties. Under German and Swiss seed market laws,
> this "technical" contamination with seed from weed and other
> varieties can be as high as 3% and 5%, respectively.
>
> But because there are no tolerance standards set for genetic
> purity, the contaminated Pioneer seeds are not approved for
> release into the environment, and planting therefore infringes
> the Swiss environment conservation law (Umweltschutzgesetz), as
> well as violating the German gene technology law
> (Gentechnikgesetz). As a result, the Swiss Department of
> Agriculture (Bundesamt fur Landwirtschaft, Bern) has prohibited
> the import and trade of contaminated Ulla and Benicia and has
> ordered the destruction of any already sown.
>
> However, Pioneer and the entire grain industry are not able to
> guarantee the genetic purity of their conventional non-GM
> varieties, says Schmidt. "Genetic inserts are in the nature of
> things," agrees Rainer Linneweber, spokesperson for Novartis Seed
> (Bad Salzuflen, Germany). "Despite our high-level quality
> management and our ISO certification, even a 100% [technical]
> purity for conventional seed is utopian," he adds. But although
> the Swiss government has now set a 1% tolerance standard for
> genetic contamination of food, such a standard for crops remains
> absent.
>
> ------------------
>
> Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 August 1999
>
> GM Soya Milk Gives Children Herpes, Senior Surgeon Tells the
> Government
>
> By Rajeev Syal
>
> A LEADING British surgeon is to give evidence to the Government
> that genetically modified soya milk triggered a herpes-related
> virus in her daughter.
>
> The surgeon, from south-west London, will explain that cold sores
> repeatedly erupted on her two-year-old's face when she regularly
> drank the GM product and immediately cleared when she stopped.
>
> The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food said last week
> that it would investigate her claims. The revelations coincide
> with worries expressed by the Prince of Wales earlier this year
> and a number of leading geneticists who believe that some GM
> products can trigger viruses in humans.
>
> The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her
> daughter, said she wants to make sure that a similar situation is
> not repeated with other children. She said: "I want the
> Government to look into this because I saw the change in my
> daughter - as soon as she was taken off the GM milk, her health
> dramatically improved. I, and my GP, have not found any other
> reasons why she became ill. My family previously ate GM products
> without worrying - but now we do not."
>
> Tests have showed that the child is not allergic to soya milk,
> which her mother began feeding her in February 1998, when she was
> just a year old because she had developed an allergy to dairy
> products. The girl immediately began developing large cold sores
> which did not respond to treatment. She was drinking about four
> pints of the milk every day - and the sores were getting worse.
>
> Her mother, a 38-year-old plastic surgeon in a London hospital,
> said: "I became aware that she was not getting better. There
> seemed to be three large, weeping sores on her face at any one
> time." So she spoke to a friend - who is also a hospital-based
> geneticist - who warned her that critics of GM products are
> worried that they could provoke viral infections.
>
> She cut the amount of soya milk her daughter was drinking to half
> a pint a day and the sores cleared up overnight. She said: "The
> circumstantial evidence was there for all to see." Critics of GM
> foods believe that "virus promoters" - pieces of DNA in plants
> that can control activity in its genes - could be responsible for
> triggering the herpes virus. But other experts disagreed.
>
> Prof Jim Dunwell, a plant biotechnologist from the University of
> Reading, who has been involved in producing GM plants, said it is
> highly unlikely that plant viruses could provoke reactions in
> human beings. He said: "It sounds highly unlikely that this child
> has had her herpes provoked by soya milk. It is more likely to be
> an allergic reaction."
>
> ------------------
>
> Japan to Start Random Checks on GM Crop Imports
>
> August 5, 1999
>
> TOKYO, Reuters [WN] via NewsEdge Corporation : Japan's Ministry
> of Health and Welfare said on Wednesday it plans to carry out
> random safety inspections of genetically modified soybeans, corn
> and rapeseed being imported into the country...
>
> Japan's Nihon Keizai business daily reported in its Wednesday
> evening edition that if the inspections find any GM grains whose
> safety has not been confirmed by the ministry, it will consider
> taking countermeasures, including barring them from entering
> Japan...
>
> Grain importers at the five ports are to submit samples to the
> ministry for safety tests, the report said.
>
--------------------
>
> Nature Biotechnology Vol. 17, August 1999
>
> Canadian Farmers Seek Compensation for "Genetic Pollution"
>
> by Brian Hoyle
>
> Brian Hoyle, a science writer based in Bedford, Nova Scotia,
> Canada, writes that five years after genetically modified (GM)
> crops became available for use in Canada, the Canadian National
> Farmers Union (NFU; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) is lobbying the
> Canadian federal government to legislate industry compensation
> for unintended genetic alteration of crops. NFU members, which
> include both organic farmers and those who grow GM crops, decry
> the "genetic pollution that has infringed on the livelihoods of
> farmers or the general public."
>
> The move follows the NFU's annual meeting last December, in which
> a resolution was passed opposing the use of GM organisms. NFU
> spokesperson Stewart Wells was quoted as saying, agricultural
> biotechnology is a "gigantic experiment." To Wells, an organic
> farmer from the province of Saskatchewan, it is the airborne
> contamination of his canola with GM varieties of canola that is a
> problem.
>
> Ann Clark, an agronomist at the University of Guelph in the
> province of Ontario, was quoted as saying, "Canola pollen can
> move up to 8 kilometers; [pollen from] corn and potatoes, about 1
> kilometer," citing New Scientist (vol. 160, issue 2158, 1998)
>
> ------------------
>
> To subscribe, send an email to ge-news-subscribe@egroups.com
>
> Mothers for Natural Law
> http://www.safe-food.org
> eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/ge-news
<>< Luiz Roberto Salvatori Meira
><> Equilíbrio Alimentar
http://www.aleph.com.br/~luizmeira
|
|
= Proprietário
= Moderador
= Online