法研究称食用转基因玉米或致癌

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.

法国政府本周三要求健康监管机构开展针对转基因玉米的一项调查，这有可能导致欧盟暂停进口这种转基因玉米。此前一项研究表明，转基因玉米会使实验鼠患上肿瘤。

法国农业部长史蒂芬-勒弗尔、环境部长黛尔菲那-巴多，以及社会事务部部长玛利索尔-图雷纳均表示，已要求法国健康安全局对这项研究成果进行调查。

他们在一份联合声明中说，“根据法国健康安全局的意见，政府将敦促欧盟采取一切必要措施，保护人类和动物健康。

不久前，法国诺曼底凯恩大学以吉勒斯-埃瑞克•瑟兰尼为首的科学家公布的研究结果称，用转基因玉米NK603喂养、或者接触了用于该谷物的除草剂的实验鼠患上了肿瘤。

NK603是一种转基因玉米，也称为玉蜀黍，是由美国农业巨头孟山都公司生产的，对该公司出品的草甘膦除草剂具有抗药性。

这使得农民可以放心使用这种除草剂，节省了大量费用。

这一研究成果已刊发在行业期刊《食品化学毒物学》上。研究称，这是首次用长达两年的时间在实验鼠身上开展这一研究，而两年也是实验鼠的自然寿命。

在实验中，200只雄性和雌性实验鼠各自被分成十组，每组十只。其中一组被作为“对比组”，喂食含有33%非转基因谷物的普通饲料和白水。

另外三组被喂食含有较大剂量草甘膦除草剂的饲料和水，反映出食物链中除草剂的不同浓度。

而另外六组则被喂食含有不同比例NK603的饲料，分别为11%、22%和33%。在谷物生长过程中有些接触过除草剂，有些则没有。

研究人员发现，不管是同时食用还是单独食用，NK603和草甘膦除草剂都对实验鼠的健康造成了相似的危害。

尤其在雌性实验鼠中，幼鼠夭折和患病的比例特别高。患病的雄性鼠一般是患上肝损害，或肾肿瘤、皮肤肿瘤以及消化系统疾病。

在为期14个月的试验中，对照组的实验鼠没有一例发现患癌，而在被喂食含有NK603和草甘膦除草剂饲料的组别中，有10%到30%的实验鼠患上了肿瘤。