Are You Aware of Genetically Modified Foods Effects?
How dangerous can genetically modified foods be? How well does the FDA and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) do their job of protecting us against products that pose threatening risks to our health and even to our life? To answer these questions I will present the StarLink case, the world's biggest genetically modified food debacle. I should add that this is not a very recent case, but we should consider it because of its possibly being typical and representative for what is going on in this field. The important part is not when this happened, but whether it is still happening.
At a business lunch with co-workers in September 2000, thirty-five-year-old Grace Booth had three delicious chicken enchiladas. Within about fifteen minutes, however, something went wrong. She felt hot, itchy, her lips swelled, she lost her voice and developed severe diarrhea. She recalls feeling her chest getting tight, having difficulty breathing and, more than that, she felt like she was going to die. In the emergency room of a nearby hospital in Oakland, California, Booth was injected with anti-allergy medicine, given Benadryl, and put on an IV. The effects of anaphylactic shock subsided and five hours later Booth safely left the hospital.
Across the country, Keith Finger, a Florida optometrist, enjoyed a dinner of tortillas, beans and rice. Fifteen minutes later he got the same symptoms of anaphylactic shock. After injecting himself with anti-allergy medicine and swallowing some Benadryl, the symptoms subsided. He is confident, however, that without the medicine he would have died.
Neither Booth nor Finger knew what had caused their allergic reactions, but within a few days both heard the news. A genetically modified corn product called StarLink, which contained a potential allergen and was not approved for human consumption, was discovered in tacos, tortillas, and other corn products. Booth, Finger, and hundreds of others contacted the FDA, concerned that they had allergic reactions to StarLink.
If StarLink was not approved for human consumption how did it get into people's meals and what did the FDA do about it?
StarLink was not supposed to be eaten by humans. It is a brand of corn that creates a modified form of a pesticide, a toxin called Cry9C. "StarLink is suspected of causing allergies because Cry9C has a heightened ability to resist heat and gastric juices, giving more time for the body to overreact," reported the Washington Post. This property was created intentionally, as a means to enhance the corn's ability to kill pests.
While the EPA did not approve the corn for human consumption, the FDA did not express concern about StarLink. The EPA, however, did allow StarLink to be fed on animals and also required that the manufacturer let the farmers know that the corn must be segregated. This did not happen. Farmers were not informed about these requirements. In fact, some StarLink seed tags explicitly stated that the corn was suitable for "forage or grain for food, feed or grain processing." Therefore, although StarLink was planted on less than 1% of US cornfields (312,000 acres) it was readily mixed in grain silos across the US, contaminating 22% of the grain tested by the USDA. Some proportion of StarLink was eventually found in tacos, corn chips, corn meal, and all things corn. Over 10 million individual food items were subject to recall, but not before tens of millions of people had eaten StarLink in their diet.
What did the FDA do about this? What tests did they perform to establish whether StarLink was safe or not?
With consumers concerned about their health and US corn exports declining, the FDA was under intense pressure to determine whether StarLink was, in fact, an allergen. First they asserted that "there is no surefire way of testing a new protein like Cry9C for its potential to cause allergies in people." After some other months the FDA did come up with a plan for an allergy test. Unfortunately "it has not been fully checked and double-checked and researchers warn the test will not give a definitive answer" the Washington Post reported. Based on the results of this test the FDA announced on June 11, 2001, that StarLink was not the cause of allergies.
The test was thoroughly criticized by some of the nation's leading food allergists, who pointed out that the test had many shortcomings. Perhaps the greatest error was that the FDA asked Adventis, the makers of StarLink, to provide the Cry9C. If the FDA was under significant pressure to create a StarLink test, Aventis was under far more pressure to pass the test. Aventis gave the FDA a sample of Cry9C protein, but it wasn't taken from StarLink. Claiming that they couldn't isolate enough of the protein form the corn, they offered a synthesized protein substitute!
Dr. Finger, the Florida optometrist who had nearly died after eating a tortilla, offered to eat StarLink corn under doctors' supervision to see if he would have a second reaction. Although risky, this method offered significant advantages over the FDA's methods. Aventis declined Finger's offer. Nonetheless, after going public with his offer to be tested, he received some StarLink sent to him anonymously in the mail. After running a test that showed it was in fact StarLink, he ate some and went to a local hospital several hours later with itchy rashes over his body and fast-rising blood pressure.
StarLink was finally withdrawn from the market, but by the time this happened, it had already been spread and mixed with other corn. Although sold as a yellow feed corn, it has cross-pollinated into sweet corn, popcorn, and white corn, and was identified in the seed stock of 71 out of the 288 companies that the USDA contacted. Some small amount of StarLink may linger in the human food chain forever.
At a business lunch with co-workers in September 2000, thirty-five-year-old Grace Booth had three delicious chicken enchiladas. Within about fifteen minutes, however, something went wrong. She felt hot, itchy, her lips swelled, she lost her voice and developed severe diarrhea. She recalls feeling her chest getting tight, having difficulty breathing and, more than that, she felt like she was going to die. In the emergency room of a nearby hospital in Oakland, California, Booth was injected with anti-allergy medicine, given Benadryl, and put on an IV. The effects of anaphylactic shock subsided and five hours later Booth safely left the hospital.
Across the country, Keith Finger, a Florida optometrist, enjoyed a dinner of tortillas, beans and rice. Fifteen minutes later he got the same symptoms of anaphylactic shock. After injecting himself with anti-allergy medicine and swallowing some Benadryl, the symptoms subsided. He is confident, however, that without the medicine he would have died.
Neither Booth nor Finger knew what had caused their allergic reactions, but within a few days both heard the news. A genetically modified corn product called StarLink, which contained a potential allergen and was not approved for human consumption, was discovered in tacos, tortillas, and other corn products. Booth, Finger, and hundreds of others contacted the FDA, concerned that they had allergic reactions to StarLink.
If StarLink was not approved for human consumption how did it get into people's meals and what did the FDA do about it?
StarLink was not supposed to be eaten by humans. It is a brand of corn that creates a modified form of a pesticide, a toxin called Cry9C. "StarLink is suspected of causing allergies because Cry9C has a heightened ability to resist heat and gastric juices, giving more time for the body to overreact," reported the Washington Post. This property was created intentionally, as a means to enhance the corn's ability to kill pests.
While the EPA did not approve the corn for human consumption, the FDA did not express concern about StarLink. The EPA, however, did allow StarLink to be fed on animals and also required that the manufacturer let the farmers know that the corn must be segregated. This did not happen. Farmers were not informed about these requirements. In fact, some StarLink seed tags explicitly stated that the corn was suitable for "forage or grain for food, feed or grain processing." Therefore, although StarLink was planted on less than 1% of US cornfields (312,000 acres) it was readily mixed in grain silos across the US, contaminating 22% of the grain tested by the USDA. Some proportion of StarLink was eventually found in tacos, corn chips, corn meal, and all things corn. Over 10 million individual food items were subject to recall, but not before tens of millions of people had eaten StarLink in their diet.
What did the FDA do about this? What tests did they perform to establish whether StarLink was safe or not?
With consumers concerned about their health and US corn exports declining, the FDA was under intense pressure to determine whether StarLink was, in fact, an allergen. First they asserted that "there is no surefire way of testing a new protein like Cry9C for its potential to cause allergies in people." After some other months the FDA did come up with a plan for an allergy test. Unfortunately "it has not been fully checked and double-checked and researchers warn the test will not give a definitive answer" the Washington Post reported. Based on the results of this test the FDA announced on June 11, 2001, that StarLink was not the cause of allergies.
The test was thoroughly criticized by some of the nation's leading food allergists, who pointed out that the test had many shortcomings. Perhaps the greatest error was that the FDA asked Adventis, the makers of StarLink, to provide the Cry9C. If the FDA was under significant pressure to create a StarLink test, Aventis was under far more pressure to pass the test. Aventis gave the FDA a sample of Cry9C protein, but it wasn't taken from StarLink. Claiming that they couldn't isolate enough of the protein form the corn, they offered a synthesized protein substitute!
Dr. Finger, the Florida optometrist who had nearly died after eating a tortilla, offered to eat StarLink corn under doctors' supervision to see if he would have a second reaction. Although risky, this method offered significant advantages over the FDA's methods. Aventis declined Finger's offer. Nonetheless, after going public with his offer to be tested, he received some StarLink sent to him anonymously in the mail. After running a test that showed it was in fact StarLink, he ate some and went to a local hospital several hours later with itchy rashes over his body and fast-rising blood pressure.
StarLink was finally withdrawn from the market, but by the time this happened, it had already been spread and mixed with other corn. Although sold as a yellow feed corn, it has cross-pollinated into sweet corn, popcorn, and white corn, and was identified in the seed stock of 71 out of the 288 companies that the USDA contacted. Some small amount of StarLink may linger in the human food chain forever.
Source...