Authorities in China's Hunan province denied recently that children in a
rural school were guinea pigs in a United States research project on the
effects of genetically modified rice.
A research paper involving 68
Chinese primary-school children in the province was published by the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition on Aug. 1, with Guangwen Tang at Tufts University
in the US named as the lead author.
The unapproved experimental rice,
widely referred to as "golden rice" and genetically engineered to
produce provitamin A, was created by Ingo Potrykus at the Institute of Plant
Sciences in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Peter Beyer at the University
of Freiburg more than 10 years ago.
Chen Peihou, deputy director of
the Hunan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, confirmed that the second
author of the paper, listed as Hu Yuming, is a researcher for the centre.
"I was aware of the project
in Hengyang in 2008, which involved children and was mainly testing for
beta-carotene bioavailability and bioconversion to retinol," or vitamin A,
Chen said yesterday. "But as far as I know, no golden rice was used, and
all the food involved was locally produced."
He also said that Hu was not
asked by the journal to sign the paper before its publication.
"In the project, we just
provided the site and assistance to the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), and we have not dealt with any US institution," he
added.
According to Chen, Yin Shi'an,
listed in the paper as the third author, is with the China CDC.
Wang Lin, information director of
the China CDC, declined to comment.
Chen said his centre will
continue its investigation and contact the journal about the issue.
Andrea Grossman, a
public-relations officer for Tufts University's Human Nutrition Research Centre
on Aging, however, was quoted by Beijing Youth Daily over the weekend as saying
that the month long research on golden rice was approved by authorities in both
countries after an examination by ethics committees.
Feeding trials with human adults
in China have also been carried out to measure the effect of fat in the diet,
on bioconversion and bioavailability, according to the Golden Rice Project
website, the official golden-rice homepage supported by the Rockefeller
Foundation.
Last Thursday, Greenpeace, the
international environmental campaign group, reported the study, backed by the
US Department of Agriculture, which involved feeding golden rice to 6- to
8-year-old children in Hunan.
The study, assigned to the Hunan
CDC by the China CDC in 2008, selected 68 primary-school children in a school
in Hankou township of Hengyang city.
According to the Hunan CDC, the
study was listed as on the Programme of National Natural Science Foundation of
China.
After the discovery was posted on
Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging website, the news received massive
attention online.
After an investigation, the
publicity department of Hengyang said over the weekend that there had been no
such research project on golden rice. It said on its micro blog there was
instead a study on the transformation of carotene in vegetables to vitamin A in
children's bodies.
According to Chen Peihou, all
results were submitted to the China CDC immediately after the experiment ended,
and no paper on that has been published within the country.
Worldwide, debates on long-term
safety for genetically modified (GM) food continues.
In China, the Ministry of
Agriculture in 2009 issued bio safety certificates to two strains of
pest-resistant GM rice and corn in what was considered a major development in
promoting the research and planting of GM crops.
The strains still need
registration and production trial - which will take three to five years -
before commercial planting could begin, according to the ministry.
The certificates triggered
concern among the public and professionals since there is still no consensus on
whether such food is harmful to humans.
As early as 2001, the State
Council introduced a regulation to ensure the safety of GM food, with strict
provisions of its research, testing, production and marketing.
At present, the only three kinds
of GM food crops that have been approved for commercial planting in China are
sweet peppers, tomatoes and papayas, Shi Yanquan, an official at the ministry,
was quoted as saying by china.com.cn during an online interview in April.
Also, the country has imported
other GM crops, including soybean, corn and rape, from overseas market to
satisfy domestic need. For instance, China imported more than 50 million tonnes
of GM soybeans in 2011, most of which were processed to edible oil, he said.
"The country has launched
strict transgenic safety and quality assessment system to ensure GM food in the
market is as safe as conventional food," he added.
Yang Xiaoguang, a researcher at
China CDC, was quoted in April as saying: "So far, we have received no
report to show any genetically modified food on the market is harmful to human
health. GM food that consumers purchase from the market is safe to eat."
Jin Zhu contributed to this
story.
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