Disputed Study

APf 15.10.99 06:00 


Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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By EMMA ROSS
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) -- Research claiming to provide evidence that rats developed tissue damage after being fed genetically altered potatoes has finally been published, renewing a fierce debate over the safety of such modified foods.
Some hailed the publication as a vindication of the researchers' claims, first aired in an interview on British television last year. But others argued the study was deeply flawed and that publication gave it a credibility it doesn't deserve.
The editor of the Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal that published the findings in this week's issue, felt compelled to write a commentary defending his decision.
"We did not lower our standards," Dr. Richard Horton told The Associated Press. "We published it both on grounds of scientific merit and on grounds of public interest."
"A component of genetically modified food does seem to cause changes in rat intestines," he said. "The question now is, are those changes harmful and is it relevant to humans? I think if we hadn't published it, we'd be accused of censorship."
The move toward genetically modified crops has caused great concern in Europe, where anxiety about food technology runs high after a spate of deaths related to so-called mad cow disease, brought on by eating British beef -- even though the beef was not genetically modified.
Genetic engineering involves introducing a gene from one organism to another, often unrelated, plant or animal. Scientists hope to use the technology to create more nutritious crops or food containing vaccines. They already have genetically altered corn, soybeans and other crops to resist insects and weed-killers.
Although genetic engineering has met relatively little resistance in the United States, concern has grown since a Cornell University study found evidence that pollen from a genetically modified corn can kill larvae of the monarch butterfly.
Horton said six experts scrutinized the British research before it was published -- twice the normal number -- and a majority recommended publishing it because it had scientific merit.
One reviewer said that, although the quality of the work was weak, it should be published to avoid criticism that it was suppressed, and another was strongly against publication, Horton said.
Anticipating criticism, Horton wrote: "At least (the findings) are now out in the open for debate... Only by welcoming that debate will the standard of public conversation about science be raised."
The experiments were conducted by Dr. Arpad Pusztai, formerly of the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, and Dr. Stanley Ewen, a pathologist at the University of Aberdeen.
They fed six rats potatoes that had been genetically altered to contain a gene that makes a protein, lectin, which increases the potato's resistance to attacks from insects and worms.
They were compared with six rats fed normal potatoes and six fed potatoes spiked directly with lectin.
Ten days later, the researchers found that the rats fed the potatoes with the added gene had intestines that had thinned in some places and thickened in others. They suggested the gene could have made the potatoes poisonous.
The Royal Society, Britain's independent academy of science, rejected the study's claims and said it should not have been published.
"It is flawed," the society said. "Too few animals were used to give statistically significant results for the complex phenomena being examined; the diets used were incompletely controlled."
"It is not possible to conclude that the process of genetic modification of plants, or even the particular genes inserted into these potatoes, raise concerns for human health," the society added.
But Friends of the Earth, an environmental group that opposes genetically modified food, praised the study and the Lancet's decision to publish it.
The findings sparked debate last year when Pusztai described them in a television interview. He was suspended from his job at the Rowett Research Institute, which announced he would retire.
Pusztai was unavailable for comment and the University of Aberdeen said Ewen declined to comment.
The Rowett Institute distanced itself from the study, saying it was not involved in submitting it for publication and had earlier concluded the results did not support the suggestion that the potatoes harmed the rats.