Experts 'didn't know' GM rice was fed to kids
Source: Xinhua |
September 6, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Authorities are continuing to investigate whether dozens of children in central China were used as guinea pigs in a US-China joint research project that included genetically modified (GM) rice.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in an online statement that its researcher was not told that the American side had used GM rice in the joint test, which was designed to study how children's bodies absorb and transform beta carotene.
Sources in the health department of Hunan Province, where the test was said to have taken place in 2008, said yesterday that "relevant officials" had gone to Beijing to participate in a joint investigation with the state CDC.
A lead author of the research paper, published in the August edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, insisted that the study had been conducted with all regulatory approvals required by each country.
The paper claimed that "Golden Rice," genetically engineered to be rich in beta carotene, was effective in providing vitamin A to children. The experiment involved feeding the rice to 24 children aged between six and eight years old in Hunan in 2008, according to Greenpeace, which broke the news late last month.
The paper's lead author was Tang Guangwen, director of the Carotenoids and Health Laboratory of Tufts University in the United States. While Tang insisted the testing had been approved, both the second and third author - Hu Yuming with the Hunan CDC and Yin Shi'an with the China CDC - denied involvement in the GM rice project.
The two echoed an announcement by Hunan authorities, which on Sunday said that the state CDC had conducted tests on children in the province in 2008, but these tests were meant to study children's bodies transformation of beta carotene in vegetables to vitamin A, and did not include GM food.
Hu told reporters he didn't know about the GM rice.
Yin added: "I am aware of the vegetable and beta carotene transformation parts of the paper but know nothing about the part involving Golden Rice."
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in an online statement that its researcher was not told that the American side had used GM rice in the joint test, which was designed to study how children's bodies absorb and transform beta carotene.
Sources in the health department of Hunan Province, where the test was said to have taken place in 2008, said yesterday that "relevant officials" had gone to Beijing to participate in a joint investigation with the state CDC.
A lead author of the research paper, published in the August edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, insisted that the study had been conducted with all regulatory approvals required by each country.
The paper claimed that "Golden Rice," genetically engineered to be rich in beta carotene, was effective in providing vitamin A to children. The experiment involved feeding the rice to 24 children aged between six and eight years old in Hunan in 2008, according to Greenpeace, which broke the news late last month.
The paper's lead author was Tang Guangwen, director of the Carotenoids and Health Laboratory of Tufts University in the United States. While Tang insisted the testing had been approved, both the second and third author - Hu Yuming with the Hunan CDC and Yin Shi'an with the China CDC - denied involvement in the GM rice project.
The two echoed an announcement by Hunan authorities, which on Sunday said that the state CDC had conducted tests on children in the province in 2008, but these tests were meant to study children's bodies transformation of beta carotene in vegetables to vitamin A, and did not include GM food.
Hu told reporters he didn't know about the GM rice.
Yin added: "I am aware of the vegetable and beta carotene transformation parts of the paper but know nothing about the part involving Golden Rice."
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