Debate on GMOs health risks after statistical findings in regulatory tests
Open accessAbstract
We summarize the major points of international debate on health risk studies for the main commercialized edible GMOs. These GMOs are soy, maize and oilseed rape designed to contain new pesticide residues since they have been modified to be herbicide-tolerant (mostly to Roundup) or to produce mutated Bt toxins. The debated alimentary chronic risks may come from unpredictable insertional mutagenesis effects, metabolic effects, or from the new pesticide residues. The most detailed regulatory tests on the GMOs are three-month long feeding trials of laboratory rats, which are biochemically assessed. The tests are not compulsory, and are not independently conducted. The test data and the corresponding results are kept in secret by the companies. Our previous analyses of regulatory raw data at these levels, taking the representative examples of three GM maize NK 603, MON 810, and MON 863 led us to conclude that hepatorenal toxicities were possible, and that longer testing was necessary. Our study was criticized by the company developing the GMOs in question and the regulatory bodies, mainly on the divergent biological interpretations of statistically significant biochemical and physiological effects. We present the scientific reasons for the crucially different biological interpretations and also highlight the shortcomings in the experimental protocols designed by the company. The debate implies an enormous responsibility towards public health and is essential due to nonexistent traceability or epidemiological studies in the GMO-producing countries.
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Significant disturbances have been found in GMO subchronic toxicity studies and may be interpreted differently.
“significant disturbances have been found and may be interpreted differently (Séralini et al., 2009;Spiroux de Vendômois et al., 2010)”
From RETRACTED: Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize (2012) · cites this paper as Spiroux de Vendômois et al., 2010
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Self-citation
- Authors
- de Vendômois, J. S., Cellier, D., Vélot, C., Clair, E., Mesnage, R., & Séralini, G.-E.
- Affiliations
- Laboratoire d'Informatique, du Traitement de l'Information et des Systèmes (FR)
- Université Paris-Sud (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- International Journal of Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- Ivyspring International Publisher
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 590-598
- ISSN
- 1449-2288 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2952409
- OpenAlex
- W83580858
- Cited by
- 64
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 7.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- International Journal of Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Genetically Modified Organisms Research
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Agricultural safety and regulations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Carcinogens and Genotoxicity Assessment
- Keywords
- genetically modified organisms, health risk assessment, regulatory toxicology, rat feeding trials, herbicide-tolerant crops, Bt crops, glyphosate, insertional mutagenesis, hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, MON810, pesticide residues, trade secrets
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Pesticides, Models, Statistical, Crops, Agricultural, Risk Assessment, Plants, Genetically Modified, Rats, Food Safety
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