Press Advisory May 19, 2009

The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine Calls For Immediate Moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods

Wichita, KS - The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) today released its position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating that "GM foods pose a serious health risk" and calling for a moratorium on GM foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes "there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects" and that "GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health." The AAEM calls for:

A moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long term safety testing and labeling of GM food.

• Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community and the public to avoid GM foods.
  
• Physicians to consider the role of GM foods in their patients' disease processes.
  
• More independent long term scientific studies to begin gathering data to investigate the role of GM foods on human health.

-more- About AAEM The American Academy of Environmental Medicine was founded in 1965, and is an international association of physicians and other professionals interested in the clinical aspects of humans and their environment. The Academy is interested in expanding the knowledge of interactions between human individuals and their environment, as these may be demonstrated to be reflected in their total health. The AAEM provides research and education in the recognition, treatment and prevention of illnesses induced by exposures to biological and chemical agents encountered in air, food and water.

Comment by PSRAST

Already nine years ago PSRAST was one of the first [if not the first - we did not keep track of it] scientist organizations in the world to call for a global moratorium of genetically engineered foods and crops for similar reasons as presented by by AAEM, see our "Open Letter to the government" sent to all goverments in the world. Our letter was signed by 206 scientists from all continents. We are very satisfied that others follow suit.

Also, under the leadership of Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, a great scientific pioneer in this field, her organization ISIS, has likewise formulated an "Open Letter from World Scientists to All Governments Concerning Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)", that also demands a moratorium on GMO releases, signed by 828 scientists from 84 different countries.

We want also to point to the press release of Independent Scientist Panel from 28 April 2004 and their very comprehensive dossier "A call for a GMO-free world" that presents strong evidence that GMOs are not only unnecessary for feeding the world but constiute a serious danger to the environment and to people and it concludes that "GM crops should be rejected now".

Taken together, these documents, signed by altogether over a thousand eminent scientists, contain powerful and well underpinned data proving that genetically engineered foods are unsafe, because unexpected harmful substances may be generated due to genetic engineering. Therefore GMOs represent a potentially serious threat to the health of mankind.

The seriousness of this threat is underscored by the terrible Showa Denko tryptophan disaster caused by an unexpected, very powerful poison that killed 37 and permanently disabled 1500 before the cause was identified. Dr. John Fagan, a former NIH molecular biologist and biotechnology expert, has noted that this poison would have escaped undetected if the safety evaluation procedure that has been used on all GM foods on the market would have been applied to the tryptophan. In other words, the approval procedure for GM foods is far too insensitive and superficial to be able to reliably detect the appearance of unexpected harmful substances that inevitably may be generated through the disturbances caused by genetic engineering.

In the US, the situation is even worse, because it is forbidden to label GM foods. Therefore, when another unexpected and undetected substance is generated in a GM food, it will take long time with potentially many thousands harmed before a connection will be identified with GMOs. Note that we write "when" and not "if", because it is inevitable that another unexpected poison will appear, and with present testing methods it is likewiese inevitable that it will escape detection.

We want to repeat what we wrote in our Showa Denko tryptophan disaster document:

Footnote

The "Harrisburg accident" occurred 1979 in a nuclear reactor in Harrisburg, PA, US, that came close to meltdown (also called the "Three mile Island accident"). It sparked the discussion of the safety of nuclear energy. But not until the Chernobyl catastrophe occured in 1986, the further usage of nuclear energy in the US and other countries was either stopped or plans were made to replace it with other solutions as soon as possible.

Before Harrisburg, experts sponsored by the US and other governments, fervently denied that the technology was unsafe. Still several independent experts had warned that nuclear energy reactors are unsafe. This situation is very similar to the denial today of GE risks by biotech sponsored scientists and the refusal of governements to listen to the well underpinned warnings of impartial experts including PSRAST.

This shows that it is unacceptable and dangerous that governmental bodies interfere with, and override technology assessments made by impartial scientists. They evidently don't have the competence, foresight, intelligence and sense of responsibility to be able to handle complex technological issues. Unfortunately corruption of government officials and politicians has contributes to suppression of truth.

We have suggested the establishment of a council of independent scientists that has the ultimate unrestricted power to decide for the country in such issues, see "A suggested procedure...". History has very clearly shown that there are very strong reasons to create such a body.