Toxin from GM Crops Found in 69% of Human Blood

Toxin from GM Crops Found in Human Blood

May 11, 2011

India Today - Fresh doubts have arisen about the safety of genetically modified crops, with a new study reporting presence of Bt toxin, used widely in GM crops, in human blood for the first time.

Genetically modified crops include genes extracted from bacteria to make them resistant to pest attacks. These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health.

Genetically modified brinjal, whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt).

Till now, scientists and multinational corporations promoting GM crops have maintained that Bt toxin poses no danger to human health as the protein breaks down in the human gut. But the presence of this toxin in human blood shows that this does not happen.

Scientists from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, have detected the insecticidal protein, Cry1Ab, circulating in the blood of pregnant as well as non-pregnant women. They have also detected the toxin in fetal blood, implying it could pass on to the next generation.

The research paper has been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication in the journal Reproductive Toxicology. The study covered 30 pregnant women and 39 women who had come for tubectomy at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) in Quebec. None of them had worked or lived with a spouse working in contact with pesticides.

They were all consuming typical Canadian diet that included GM foods such as soybeans, corn and potatoes. Blood samples were taken before delivery for pregnant women and at tubal ligation for non-pregnant women. Umbilical cord blood sampling was done after birth.

Cry1Ab toxin was detected in 93 per cent and 80 per cent of maternal and fetal blood samples, respectively and in 69 per cent of tested blood samples from non-pregnant women. Earlier studies had found trace amounts of the Cry1Ab toxin in gastrointestinal contents of livestock fed on GM corn. This gave rise to fears that the toxins may not be effectively eliminated in humans and there may be a high risk of exposure through consumption of contaminated meat.

"Generated data will help regulatory agencies responsible for the protection of human health to make better decisions", noted researchers Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc.

Given the potential toxicity of these environmental pollutants and the fragility of the foetus, more studies are needed, particularly those using the placental transfer approach, they added.

Experts have warned of serious implications for India. Cottonseed oil is made from seeds of genetically modified cotton and thus Bt toxin may have already entered the food chain in India.

"Indian regulators should be immediately called for detailed toxicological studies to know the extent of contamination of the human blood with Bt toxins coming from cottonseed oil, and also ascertain its long term health impacts," Sharma said.

93% of Unborn Babies Have GMO Food Toxins in Their Blood

May 20, 2011

Salem-News.com - A new medical study on the impacts of genetically modified (GM) foods, shows that toxins from GM crops designed to strike down pests are actually showing up in the bloodstreams of women and unborn babies.

The new study, "Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada" by Aziz Aris and Samuel Leblanc with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at the University of Sherbrooke Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada, brings to light many of the fears that GMO food awareness groups and writers like our own April Scott, have been attempting to illuminate to the public.

The results of the study show that 93 per cent of blood samples taken from pregnant women and 80 percent of samples taken from umbilical cords, tested positive for traces of the chemicals.

This is highly problematic for Americans, where literally millions of acres have been taken over by these Monsanto generated crops. The GMO seeds carry a traceable blueprint and organic farmers whose fields have these non-natural crop seeds blow onto their land, are subject to lawsuit from Monsanto. 

You see, in this new game, every part is a victim except for Monsanto employees and shareholders. This is the company responsible for Agent Orange, the highly toxic chemical that was sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam, and possibly Guam, and in places like Oregon during its testing years.

We could never count the cancer victims of Monsanto, which has never atoned for its chemical irresponsibility during the Vietnam War. Veterans suffering cancer today always have to struggle to find any type of compensation for such a distinctly wrong and negligent government and business practice.

Now Monsanto has graduated from the jungles of Vietnam to your dinner table with GMO foods.  We now conclusively know that the Monsanto toxins designed to kill pests are being carried by humans and babies in the womb. There are no conclusive studies to prove the safety of these products. It is quite a problem in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., in France and beyond.

From the study: "Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada"

An optimal exchange across the maternal-fetal unit (MFU) is necessary for a successful pregnancy. The placenta plays a major role in the embryo’s nutrition and growth, in the regulation of the endocrine functions and in drug biotransformation. Exchange involves not only physiological constituents, but also substances that represent a pathological risk for the fetus such as xenobiotics that include drugs, food additives, pesticides, and environmental pollutants.

The understanding of what xenobiotics do to the MFU and what the MFU does to the xenobiotics should provide the basis for the use of placenta as a tool to investigate and predict some aspects of developmental toxicity. Moreover, pathological conditions in the placenta are important causes of intrauterine or perinatal death, congenital anomalies, intrauterine growth retarda-tion, maternal death, and a great deal of morbidity for both, mother and child.

Genetically modified plants (GMP) were first approved for commercialization in Canada in 1996 then become distributed a wide range of weeds. It can be used on non-crop land as well as in a great variety of crops. GLYP is the active ingredient in the commercial herbicide RoundupŽ. Glyphosate is an acid, but usually used in a salt form, most commonly the isopropylamine salt.

The target of glyphosate is 5-enolpyruvoylshikimate 3-phosphate syn- thase (EPSPS), an enzyme in the shikimate pathway that is required for the synthesis of many aromatic plant metabolites, including some amino acids. The gene that confers tolerance of the herbicide is from the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens and makes an EPSPS that is not affected by glyphosate.

The authors reveal how few studies have examined the kinetics of absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination of glyphosate in humans. There is much to appreciate in that revelation, as millions are eating foods generated with this technology absolutely unaware of the possible dangers.

According to the study, there are reported detections of urinary GLYP concentrations among children, mothers and fathers living in farm and non farm households in Iowa. Tests showed little contrast between farm and non farm mothers and no positive association between the mothers’ urinary glyphosate levels and glyphosate dust concentrations. 

Therefore it appears that the dangers from GMO crops does is not connected to growing them, just eating them.

Again from the study: These findings suggest that other sources of exposure such as diet may be involved. Gluphosinate (or glufosinate) [ammonium dl-homoalanin-4- (methyl) phosphinate] is a broad-spectrum, contact herbicide. Its major metabolite is 3-methylphosphinicopropionic acid (MPPA), with which it has similar biological and toxicological effects.

GLUF is used to control a wide range of weeds after the crop emerges or for total vegetation control on land not used for cultivation. Gluphosinate herbicides are also used to desiccate (dry out) crops before harvest. It is a phosphorus-containing amino acid. It inhibits the activity of an enzyme, glutamine synthetase, which is necessary for the production of the amino acid glutamine and for ammonia detoxification. The application of GLUF leads to reduced glutamine and increased ammonia levels in the plant’s tissues. This causes photosynthesis to stop and the plant dies within a few days. GLUF also inhibits the same enzyme in animals.

The gene used to make plants resistant to gluphosinate comes from the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus and encodes an enzyme called phosphinothricine acetyl transferase (PAT). This enzyme detoxifies GLUF. Crop varieties carrying this trait include varieties of oilseed rape, maize, soybeans, sugar beet, fodder beet, cotton and rice. As for GLYP, its kinetics of absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination (ADME) is not well studied in humans, except few poisoned-case studies [16,20,21]. Hirose et al. reported the case of a 65-year-old male who ingested BASTA, which contains 20% (w/v) of GLUF ammonium, about 300 ml, more than the estimated human toxic dose.

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