Ed Note: Details of the study can be found at http://www.regnum.ru/english/526651.html

The Independent/UK
Published on Sunday, January 8, 2006
GM: New Study Shows Unborn Babies Could Be Harmed
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article337253.ece
Mortality rate for new-born rats six times higher when mother was fed on a
diet of modified soya
by Geoffrey Lean

Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies,
startling new research suggests.

The World Trade Organization is expected next month to support a bid by the
Bush administration to force European countries to accept GM foods.

The study - carried out by a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of
Sciences - found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on
modified soya died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as
those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also
severely underweight.

The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a
clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages human
health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected the liver and
pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long attempt to develop
modified peas when an official study found they caused lung damage.
And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant
Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller
kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to their
immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional one.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization held a workshop on the
safety of genetically modified foods at its Rome headquarters late last
year. The workshop was addressed by scientists whose research had raised
concerns about health dangers. But the World Trade Organization is expected
next month to support a bid by the Bush administration to force European
countries to accept GM foods.

The Russian research threatens to have an explosive effect on already
hostile public opinion. Carried out by Dr Irina Ermakova at the Institute of
Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, it is believed to be the first to look at the effects of GM food
on the unborn.

The scientist added flour from a GM soya bean - produced by Monsanto to be
resistant to its pesticide, Roundup - to the food of female rats, starting
two weeks before they conceived, continuing through pregnancy, birth and
nursing. Others were given non-GM soya and a third group was given no soya
at all.

She found that 36 per cent of the young of the rats fed the modified soya
were severely underweight, compared to 6 per cent of the offspring of the
other groups. More alarmingly, a staggering 55.6 per cent of those born to
mothers on the GM diet perished within three weeks of birth, compared to 9
per cent of the offspring of those fed normal soya, and 6.8 per cent of the
young of those given no soya at all.

"The morphology and biochemical structures of rats are very similar to those
of humans, and this makes the results very disturbing" said Dr Ermakova.
"They point to a risk for mothers and their babies."

Environmentalists say that - while the results are preliminary - they are
potentially so serious that they must be followed up. The American Academy
of Environmental Medicine has asked the US National Institute of Health to
sponsor an immediate, independent follow-up.

The Monsanto soya is widely eaten by Americans. There is little of it, or
any GM crop, in British foods though it is imported to feed animals farmed
for meat.

Tony Coombes, director of corporate affairs for Monsanto UK, said: "The
overwhelming weight of evidence from published, peer-reviewed, independently
conducted scientific studies demonstrates that Roundup Ready soy can be
safely consumed by rats, as well as all other animal species studied."

What the experiment found

Russian scientists added flour made from a GM soya to the diet of female
rats two weeks before mating them, and continued feeding it to them during
pregnancy, birth and nursing. Others were give non-GM soya or none at all.
Six times as many of the offspring of those fed the modified soya were
severely underweight compared to those born to the rats given normal diets.
Within three weeks, 55.6 per cent of the young of the mothers given the
modified soya died, against 9 per cent of the offspring of those fed the
conventional soya.

© 2006 Independent News and Media