(Fwd) EU rejects Austrian BT-maize warning

[Michael Gochfeld]

This message seems relevant to discussions some months ago. M GOCHFELD
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--- Forwarded mail from Gary Greenberg <Gary.Greenberg at DUKE.EDU>

EU scientists reject Austrian evidence on GM maize

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=4286
Read the whole article at the original web-site

BELGIUM: October 21, 1999

BRUSSELS - The European Union's top scientific experts yesterday
rejected evidence submitted by Austria claiming a link between a
widely-used variety of genetically modified maize and environmental
damage.
...

The European Commission asked the committee to investigate whether
evidence submitted by Austria threw into doubt an earlier decision to
approve a Bt-maize variety developed by Monsanto Co (MTC.N and, by
extension, two other Bt-maize plants marketed by Novartis AG. Austria
has a unilateral ban on the products, citing potential health and
environmental risks. Its domestic ban will also now be called into
question, EU officials said.

Austria banned the Novartis maize in December 1996 and the Monsanto
maize, known as Bt-Maize MON-810, on May 27, 1999. It sent the evidence
sent to the commission in June this year.

NO NEW SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION

"The scientific committee concludes that the information submitted by
Austria does not constitute new significant information that was not
already considered in its original risk assessment," said a committee
report published on the Internet.

The 15-member EU has not approved any new GM crops since April 1998 as
consumer concerns grow about the safety of foods derived from crops
modified by biotechnology.

In May, the Commission, the EU's executive, announced it would freeze
the approval procedure for another Bt-maize developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred
International Inc following a scientific study showing that pollen from
Bt-maize could kill butterflies under laboratory conditions.

...

Resistance in Europe to biotechnology has raised the threat of a new
transatlantic trade conflict. The United States is angered that it has
been blocked from exporting bulk commodities to Europe because some GM
crops are not approved for use there.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

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