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By the Natural
Law Party, UK, Wessex Branch
These comments are in
response to an unusual
letter, in which FDA experts lay out concerns about
the health benefits of soy.
If this kind of thing is cropping up
with research on normal soy that requires no special testing
for release onto the market, how come the allegedly thorough
testing with GM varieties has not shown any similar adverse
effects on animal and human health?
This raises the question: "Is
the right kind of testing on GM soy being done,
or are the testing methods used not suited for picking up
health effects?"
The adverse
effects from normal soy should be showing up in GM soy
as well if GM soy is really "substantially equivalent"
to normal soy as claimed by food safety regulators around
the world.
Because the GM testing appears not be
successfully identifying these known problems, this situation
would appear to be further evidence
that GM soy has only been subject to superficial testing.
If so what additional effects created by the genetic modification
have also gone undetected?
This situation is especially significant
because outstanding questions concerning the safety of normal
soy appear to be arising even from within the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) itself. According to the ABC News
report above, soy safety questions from recent research
have arisen in relation to a number of health problems including
-
breast
cancer in women
-
brain
function in men
-
developmental
abnormalities in children
According to the FDA scientists concerned:
"There exists a significant body of animal data that
demonstrates goitrogenic and even carcinogenic effects of
soy products."
No wonder no Government wants to do
proper toxicity testing on GM soy. It could upset the whole
soy multi-billion dollar apple cart, both GM and non-GM.
For more information on the lack of safety testing on GM
soy see: "Where is the safety testing of GM soya?"
http://www.connectotel.com/gmfood/soyarefs.html
In the light of this evidence is it
a true scientific statement to say: "There are no adverse
health effects from GM soy"...?
Certainly these scientists from the
FDA have not been willing to make such a statement in respect
of normal soy - in fact they have clearly said something
very contrary. It seems apparent that much of the detailed
testing which has now been done on normal soy (with negative
results) has not been done on GM soy, and that therefore
the GM testing is not worth the paper it is written on.
To make
matters worse it
is now legal in the US to label
any kind of soy (GM or otherwise) as beneficial for reducing
heart disease risk, but illegal
to label it as genetically modified.
God Bless America - land of the "fee".
The new labeling arrangements follow
a petition submitted to the FDA by the American Soybean
Association (ASA), whose corporate partners include the
following biotechnology/agro-chemical companies - American
Cyanamid, Bayer, Dow, Du Pont, Monsanto, Novartis and Zeneca
(http://www.oilseeds.org/partners.htm).
According to ASA President Mike Yost:
"With this one change we couldn't have asked for a
more favorable decision by FDA, one that will benefit U.S.
and world consumers as well as U.S. soybean producers."
(ASA News Release November 16, 1998 following the initial
FDA approval.)
By contrast, in submitting its comments
to the FDA on the new health-claim labeling arrangements
for all soy the American Dietetic Association (ADA) warned:
"ADA assumes that both FDA and PTI have looked extensively
at the literature regarding potential safety concerns such
as allergenic reactions and possible toxicological effects
of soy.
While we recognize that there is limited
research in this area, we urge FDA to consider any safety
and toxicological issues prior to finalizing this rule."
In the light of the warnings made by
its own scientific experts here are six questions that it
would now be interesting for attorneys and barristers to
ask the FDA and other government regulators in courts of
law around the world:
1)
"What is your understanding of the term 'the precautionary
principle'?"
2)
"Are there any harmful health effects from non-genetically
modified soy postulated or demonstrated as a result of experiments
published in the scientific literature?"
3)
"Have all such experiments on the health effects of
non-genetically modified soy also been carried out in relation
to genetically modified soy?"
4)
"Is genetically modified soy 'substantially equivalent'
to non-genetically modified soy?"
5)
"If you consider there to be equivalence, does that
mean that any scientific findings on the health effects
of non-genetically modified soy would also be applicable
to genetically modified soy?"
6)
"On the basis of your answers to the previous questions,
and any other scientific evidence that you are aware of,
are you able to confirm that there are no harmful health
effects from genetically modified soy?"
Natural
Law Party Wessex
Related
Articles:
Scientists
Protest Soy Approval
Soy Index
Soy
May Cause Cancer and Brain Damage
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