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Question

The prestigious French Journal of Food & Toxicology ran a two year study on gmo fed rats. Result: early death, infertility and GIGANTIC TUMOURS. Answer that!

Submitted by: blazeart_


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Expert response from Community Manager

Moderator for GMOAnswers.com

Thursday, 04/12/2014 22:33

Several experts have addressed the study you reference. Alan McHughen, biotechnology specialist at the University of California, Riverside, explains the scientific community’s and journal’s response to the study that was originally published in the response, saying:
 

“The pictures from that study conducted by Gilles-Eric Séralini are frightening — and made for sensationalistic media coverage. However, when teams of scientists from around the world looked at the study carefully, they found that the conclusions drawn by Séralini were not credible and that the study itself was seriously flawed and provided no new grounds for concern about GM food.

 

“The paper was criticized by public scientific and medical societies worldwide for its faulty experimental design, statistical analysis, interpretation and presentation of results. Problems included the well-known fact that the strain of rats used in the study (Sprague-Dawley) is prone to develop tumors at around age two, regardless of their diet; Séralini attributed the tumors to the GM corn rations, but he could as easily have shown pictures of rats fed no GM corn but still full of tumors. Séralini’s data analysis was also unusual; the German risk assessment agency found it ‘impossible to comprehend.’ At the request of the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reviewed Séralini’s study and released an opinion, which it summarized as follows:

 

“‘EFSA’s final review reaffirmed its initial findings that the authors’ conclusions cannot be regarded as scientifically sound because of inadequacies in the design, reporting and analysis of the study as outlined in the paper. It is not possible, therefore, to draw valid conclusions about the occurrence of tumors in the rats tested’ (Frequently Asked Questions on review of Séralini et al. (2012) study).”

 
The study was republished in an expanded form in another journal in 2014, and scientists around the world reacted in this article from the Genetic Literacy Project.
 
If you have any additional questions, please ask.