EPA Reregisters Bt Frankencorn Despite
Widespread Criticism

Inter Press Service
October 16, 2001, Tuesday

ENVIRONMENT: EPA FINDS "BT CORN" SAFE, BUT CRITICS OBJECT

BY: By Danielle Knight

U.S. regulators today renewed the registration of genetically engineered
corn containing Bt toxin, despite what critics call a lack of clarity over
possible threats to health and the environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted five different corn crops
containing a gene from the natural soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis
(Bt), which is toxic to weeds and other plants, a seven-year registration.

"Bt corn has been evaluated thoroughly by EPA, and we are confident that it
does not pose risks to human health or to the environment," said Stephen L.
Johnson, assistant administrator of the agency's Office of Prevention,
Pesticides, and Toxic Substances.

While declaring that the corn products are safe, the agency said it was
requesting additional environmental studies and requiring that companies
comply with several new provisions designed to strengthen insect resistance
management. The decision brings to an end an almost two-year-long
process during which the agency reassessed the risks and benefits
of controversial Bt corn crops, produced by several biotechnology companies.
The companies holding registrations for Bt corn are Monsanto, Syngenta,
Pioneer/DuPont and Mycogen/Dow.

Biotech watchdogs immediately denounced the decision.

"Once again, the EPA has taken the interests of a few corporations over
public health and the environment," Matt Rand, manager of the biotech
campaign at the Washington-based National Environmental Trust (NET), told
IPS.

Public concern worldwide over Bt corn grew after scientists at Cornell
University found in May 1999 that Bt corn pollen killed monarch butterfly
larvae.

Half of the monarchs -- cherished by nature lovers for their unique
bird-like migration in North America -- migrate along the U.S. corn belt.
The discovery that genetically altered corn pollen will kill non-target
species like monarch butterflies alarmed many scientists and made front-page
headlines around the globe.

A scientific assessment of more recent research studies, which was carried
out by U.S. and Canadian researchers including the Department of
Agriculture, suggested that monarch butterfly caterpillars face "negligible"
risk from Bt corn pollen.

"Their comprehensive, peer-reviewed studies in actual field conditions show
that earlier, widely publicized laboratory experiments were not
representative of conditions in a natural environment," said Linda Thrane,
executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information, an industry
organization.

Several scientists remain unconvinced.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which asked regulators not to renew
the registrations, conducted its own analysis of the risks and benefits of
Bt corn, including the new studies on monarchs.

"The studies leave open the possibility that exposure to Bt corn may have
long-term harmful effects on the butterflies," said Jane Rissler, a senior
UCS staff scientist.

Several authors of the more recent studies have urged the EPA to consider
the possibility that the insects might not only consume corn pollen, but
corn tissue as well.

"If they do, the dose of toxin received by the monarchs could be much higher
than that considered," said Rissler.

Karen Oberhauser, one of the authors of the recent monarch studies, told IPS
that assessing increased mortality rates of monarchs is difficult because
the larvae have such a high natural mortality rate, ranging from 90 to 95
percent.

A significant statistical change would only show up if large field tests
were conducted across the country, unlike what researchers have done so far,
said Oberhauser, who is a professor at the department of ecology, evolution
and behavior at the University of Minnesota.

"In my mind there are still questions," she said.

A coalition of consumer and environmental groups, known as the Genetically
Engineered Food Alert, said government regulators also failed to conduct
studies on the impact that ingestion of the corn could have on human health.

Advocacy groups said hundreds of reports of possible allergic reactions to
the engineered corn had not been investigated.

While the EPA's own scientific advisors recommended in July that allergy
tests be conducted, regulatory officials said no tests were planned before
the re-registering of Bt corn.

"The agency has had the ability for several years to design and conduct
allergy testing, yet they have refused," said NET's Rand.

In the absence of such allergy tests, advocacy groups they will send samples
of Bt corn varieties to allergists, who can then test their patients through
controlled "skin prick" tests. The groups would then make the test results
public.

More than 200 people have reported unexplained allergies to corn but no
government investigation has examined all of the cases, said Larry Bohlen,
director of health and environment programs for Friends of the Earth.

Last year, the coalition was first to alert the public that a genetically
modified corn variety, known as StarLink and not approved for human
consumption, had been found in taco shells and other food products.

The announcement triggered hundreds of food recalls in the United States.
In September, the Taco Bell restaurant franchise and several other food
companies filed a class-action lawsuit against Aventis CropScience and other
seed corporations that helped develop, market and distribute StarLink.

The introduction of the unapproved altered seed has resulted in "major
disruptions of the food supply," the suit alleged.

Bohlen said the EPA's approval of Bt corn without testing for allergies
would again leave companies vulnerable to the same liability issues they
faced with Starlink.