法研究稱食用轉基因玉米或致癌大綱
France's government on Wednesday asked a health watchdog to carry out a probe, possibly leading to EU suspension of a genetically-modified corn, after a study in rats linked the grain to cancer.
Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll, Ecology Minister Delphine Batho and Health and Social Affairs Minister Marisol Touraine said they had asked the National Agency for Health Safety (ANSES) to investigate the finding.
"Depending on ANSES' opinion, the government will urge the European authorities to take all necessary measures to protect human and animal health," they said in a joint statement.
Earlier, French scientists led by Gilles-Eric Seralini at the University of Caen in Normandy unveiled a study that said rats fed with NK603 corn or exposed to the weedkiller used with it developed tumours.
NK603 is a corn, also called maize, made by US agribusiness giant Monsanto. It has been engineered to make it resistant to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup.
This enables farmers to douse fields with the weedkiller in a single go, thus offering substantial savings.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, says it is the first to look at rats over their normal lifespan of two years.
Two hundred male and female rats were split into 10 groups of 10 animals. One was a "control" group which was given ordinary rat food that contained 33 percent non-GM corn, and plain water.
Three groups were given ordinary rat food and water with increasing doses of Roundup, reflecting various concentrations of the herbicide in the food chain.
The other six were fed rat food of which 11, 22 or 33 percent comprised NK603 corn, either treated or not with Roundup when the corn was grown.
The researchers found that NK603 and Roundup both caused similar damage to the rats' health, whether they were consumed together or on their own.
Premature deaths and sickness were concentrated especially among females. Males which fell sick suffered liver damage, developed kidney and skin tumours and digestive problems.
At the 14-month stage of experiment, no animals in the control groups showed any signs of cancer, but among females in the "treated" groups, tumours affected between 10 and 30 percent of the rodents.法國政府本週三要求健康監管機構開展針對轉基因玉米的一項調查，這有可能導致歐盟暫停進口這種轉基因玉米。此前一項研究表明，轉基因玉米會使實驗鼠患上腫瘤。
法國農業部長史蒂芬-勒弗爾、環境部長黛爾菲那-巴多，以及社會事務部部長瑪利索爾-圖雷納均表示，已要求法國健康安全局對這項研究成果進行調查。
他們在一份聯合聲明中說，“根據法國健康安全局的意見，政府將敦促歐盟採取一切必要措施，保護人類和動物健康。
不久前，法國諾曼底凱恩大學以吉勒斯-埃瑞克•瑟蘭尼爲首的科學家公佈的研究結果稱，用轉基因玉米NK603餵養、或者接觸了用於該穀物的除草劑的實驗鼠患上了腫瘤。
NK603是一種轉基因玉米，也稱爲玉蜀黍，是由美國農業巨頭孟山都公司生產的，對該公司出品的草甘膦除草劑具有抗藥性。
這使得農民可以放心使用這種除草劑，節省了大量費用。
這一研究成果已刊發在行業期刊《食品化學毒物學》上。研究稱，這是首次用長達兩年的時間在實驗鼠身上開展這一研究，而兩年也是實驗鼠的自然壽命。
在實驗中，200只雄性和雌性實驗鼠各自被分成十組，每組十隻。其中一組被作爲“對比組”，餵食含有33%非轉基因穀物的普通飼料和白水。
另外三組被餵食含有較大劑量草甘膦除草劑的飼料和水，反映出食物鏈中除草劑的不同濃度。
而另外六組則被餵食含有不同比例NK603的飼料，分別爲11%、22%和33%。在穀物生長過程中有些接觸過除草劑，有些則沒有。
研究人員發現，不管是同時食用還是單獨食用，NK603和草甘膦除草劑都對實驗鼠的健康造成了相似的危害。
尤其在雌性實驗鼠中，幼鼠夭折和患病的比例特別高。患病的雄性鼠一般是患上肝損害，或腎腫瘤、皮膚腫瘤以及消化系統疾病。
在爲期14個月的試驗中，對照組的實驗鼠沒有一例發現患癌，而在被餵食含有NK603和草甘膦除草劑飼料的組別中，有10%到30%的實驗鼠患上了腫瘤。
