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Prime Minister Tony Blair has been accused by a Welsh campaign group of
promoting corrupt science to farmers and consumers in pursuit of a pro-GM agenda.
GM Free Cymru claims Mr Blair intervened personally to silence the research
findings of an eminent biologist and nutritionist Arpad Pusztai.
Dr Pusztai, author of 12 books and 300 scientific papers, was sacked from his
post at the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen University in 1998 after he and his
partner Dr Stanley Ewen discovered physiological changes in the internal
organs of rats fed on GM potatoes. The changes involved GM material transferring to
the gut lining and creating a pre-cancerous state.
Environmental scientist and GM Free Cymru spokesman Dr Brian John said it was
the first evidence of harm arising from the consumption of a GM animal feed.
Institute director Professor Phillip James, who had recently drawn up the
blueprint for the new Food Standards Agency at Mr Blair's request, was preparing
to make an announcement of the findings in August 1998 when he received two
phone calls from No 10 Downing Street.
"Following these calls, the Institute made a 180-degree turn and began a
campaign of victimisation and vilification which led to the sacking of Dr Pusztai,
the shutting down of his research programme, the disbanding of his research
team, and the confiscation of his research data", said Dr John.
He was also banned from talking to the media or the public about his findings.
Questioned later by MPs over whether Mr Blair had phoned him, Prof James said
only that there had been "no undue political interference".
Dr Pusztai's research on behalf of a Cambridge biotechnology company was
funded by a £1.6m government grant.
All grant aid to research on the health effects of GM crops has now been cut
and the only serious research in the field is taking place in Norway.
Dr John said the Pusztai row changed the atmosphere of research and made it
politically unacceptable for any scientist to discover anything negative
relating to the health and safety of GM crops and food.
He said the scientific establishment in Britain now systematically avoids
research that might throw up unpalatable results.
"Obfuscation, media manipulation and the vilification of good scientists has
become part of the scientific process," he said.
He said the Prime Minister was personally responsible for the corruption of
GM science.
"He constantly refers to the primacy of science and to science - based
decision making, but in the wake of the Pusztai scandal, which would not have been
out of place in Stalinist Russia, he and his Government have actually
encouraged scientific fraud on a substantial scale."
Dr Pusztai's research has never been repeated or followed up. Almost all GM
animal feeding studies are now designed to establish nutritional and
compositional equivalence instead of testing for health effects.
And a study at Newcastle that found fragmented genetically modified DNA
survived in the guts of volunteers after just one glass of GM soya milk has never
been followed up.
"This is an absolute scandal and enough is enough," said Dr John."Almost all
the warnings about GM technology given years ago by independent scientists are
now being borne out by events.
"We see health damage to animals and humans, widespread GM cross-pollination
and contamination of other crops, genetic instability in the GM varieties
which the multinationals are trying to commercialise, and falling yields and
increased herbicide use in GM crop plantations.
"Argentina is already facing a GM disaster, and America will be next. It is
now time for Mr Blair and Mrs Beckett to abandon their mindless support for the
GM industry, and to put the public interest - and the wishes of the public-
at the top of the political agenda."
A Downing Street spokesman said yesterday, "We are not aware of any contact
between the Prime Minister or any No 10 staff and the Rowett Institute
regarding this issue."
He denied that the Government was promoting GM crops and said an audit by the
Rowett Institute in 1998 showed that the data generated by Dr Pusztai's
research was too inconsistent and variable to allow meaningful conclusions to be
drawn.
And although some small fragments of GM DNA survived in the upper regions of
the gut of some participants in the Newcastle study, no GM material survived
through the entire human digestive tract, and no intact genes from the GM food
were incorporated into the gut bacteria of the human volunteers.
"The fact that fragments of GM DNA survived in the upper parts of the gut is
consistent with existing scientific knowledge," he said.
"Such DNA fragments cannot change the genetic make-up of the body and the FSA
do not regard the findings as identifying any cause for concern."
He added, " Ultimately it will be for farmers and consumers to decide via the
normal operation of the market whether they want GM crops and foods."
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