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Whether GM rice or wrist watches, long probes let the bad guys off
By Wan Lixin |
September 21, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
ON August 31, Greenpeace published a website article "Chinese children used in US-backed GM food trial," alleging that American and Chinese scientists had fed 24 children, aged between 6 and 8 years, a strain of genetically modified (GM) rice dubbed Golden Rice in Hunan Province.
This reminded some parents in Hengyang, Hunan Province, of one test conducted in local Jiangkou Township Primary School in 2008.
The Beijing News newspaper tried to reconstruct what actually happened in 2008 and published a report on Monday following 10 days of investigation.
'Free project'
The parents of the 74 pupils in the study were told initially that the study was a free, nutritious lunch project aimed at helping students grow taller and healthier, and was backed by relevant American institutions and funded by the Chinese government. Jiangkou Primary School was lucky to win the project against so much competition, parents were told.
One student recalled that during May and June of 2008, he gave five blood samples for testing. The children's blood serum tests results led to a paper published in the August edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
According to this paper, 24 of the 72 children involved in the study were fed 60 grams of GM rice daily for 21 consecutive days, in a study backed by the US National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Agriculture and led by Tang Guangwen from Tufts University.
Tang was the lead author, followed by six others, including Hu Yuming, a researcher from the Hunan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yin Shi'an, a researcher from the National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety in Beijing. Hu and Yin helped coordinate administration of the experiment.
The published paper revealed that the plants used to feed the pupils were grown with heavy water (deuterium oxide), which we generally associate with nuclear weapons.
The paper also claimed that the experimental processes and protocol in 2008 were approved by, among others, the ethics committee of Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, and both parents and pupils consented to participate in the study. What happened following the expose was more or less predictable.
The outraged parents demanded to know whether there was GM food involved in the test in 2008.
Following overnight deliberation involving dictating the standard narrative to the concerned parties, the Hengyang government at first flatly denied the existence of any experiment involving GM food.
When more evidence emerged supporting the existence of the study, the government complained it had been taken advantage of by the researchers who failed to tell the full truth about the experiment.
Those persons believed to be responsible for the experiment are also blaming each other.
All the researchers listed as the coauthors of the paper (those who help administer the tests in China) pleaded ignorance of what the paper is about.
Do these innocent researchers know the value of being an author of a paper in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition? It means promotions, grants and titles, stupid.
But these researchers are smart enough to know that even for a scientist, ignorance can sometimes be an extenuating circumstance and pleading ignorance can be better than knowingly trampling ethical principles.
Truth can be elusive
We are all waiting for the result of official investigation, but truth can be elusive.
While scandals can erupt easily in the Internet age, subsequent investigation can last an inordinately long time. The investigators know that time cures all. For instance, we still have no idea how Yang Dacai got all his wristwatches, although Yang has already fallen into oblivion.
The Shaanxi Security Supervision chief provoked national outrage for his ill-timed grin at the scene of bus crash that killed 36 people on August 26. Angered Internet users identified no less than five watches on Yang's wrist in published photos.
Yang acted proactively by explaining online his penchant for watches, adding that he had purchased five watches over a 10-year period. But soon six more watches had been identified.
A probe seemed inevitable, and is still dragging on. According to the latest report, Yang is working as usual in his office.
Nor do we know what Fang Daguo, a military officer, did to a flight attendant.
Apparently in a state of intoxication, Fang and his wife physically assaulted a flight attendant on August 29 on a Southern Airlines flight, over how their luggage should be placed. The flight attendant's uniform was ripped off, and she suffered extensive scratches to her skin.
A hasty internal probe said Fang had already said sorry to the attendant, and a reconciliation had been reached.
But the media would not let go of it, and after keeping up the heat for some time, on September 2 it was announced that Fang had been suspended from his post pending further investigation.
In the latest report, Fang's colleagues could no longer confirm that Fang had ever been deprived of his title.
In the Internet age people's attention span has become so short-lived that government departments have clearly found a new way in pacifying online ire: delayed satisfaction.
Will the latest GM rice scandal be similarly managed?
I have little doubt, for unlike the previous scandals, a time-consuming investigation into the GM scandal can actually invest the probe with an aura of thoroughness and objectivity. The public have every reason to know the official version of truth, hopefully in the not so distant future.
This reminded some parents in Hengyang, Hunan Province, of one test conducted in local Jiangkou Township Primary School in 2008.
The Beijing News newspaper tried to reconstruct what actually happened in 2008 and published a report on Monday following 10 days of investigation.
'Free project'
The parents of the 74 pupils in the study were told initially that the study was a free, nutritious lunch project aimed at helping students grow taller and healthier, and was backed by relevant American institutions and funded by the Chinese government. Jiangkou Primary School was lucky to win the project against so much competition, parents were told.
One student recalled that during May and June of 2008, he gave five blood samples for testing. The children's blood serum tests results led to a paper published in the August edition of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
According to this paper, 24 of the 72 children involved in the study were fed 60 grams of GM rice daily for 21 consecutive days, in a study backed by the US National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Agriculture and led by Tang Guangwen from Tufts University.
Tang was the lead author, followed by six others, including Hu Yuming, a researcher from the Hunan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Yin Shi'an, a researcher from the National Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety in Beijing. Hu and Yin helped coordinate administration of the experiment.
The published paper revealed that the plants used to feed the pupils were grown with heavy water (deuterium oxide), which we generally associate with nuclear weapons.
The paper also claimed that the experimental processes and protocol in 2008 were approved by, among others, the ethics committee of Zhejiang Academy of Medical Sciences, and both parents and pupils consented to participate in the study. What happened following the expose was more or less predictable.
The outraged parents demanded to know whether there was GM food involved in the test in 2008.
Following overnight deliberation involving dictating the standard narrative to the concerned parties, the Hengyang government at first flatly denied the existence of any experiment involving GM food.
When more evidence emerged supporting the existence of the study, the government complained it had been taken advantage of by the researchers who failed to tell the full truth about the experiment.
Those persons believed to be responsible for the experiment are also blaming each other.
All the researchers listed as the coauthors of the paper (those who help administer the tests in China) pleaded ignorance of what the paper is about.
Do these innocent researchers know the value of being an author of a paper in the prestigious American Journal of Clinical Nutrition? It means promotions, grants and titles, stupid.
But these researchers are smart enough to know that even for a scientist, ignorance can sometimes be an extenuating circumstance and pleading ignorance can be better than knowingly trampling ethical principles.
Truth can be elusive
We are all waiting for the result of official investigation, but truth can be elusive.
While scandals can erupt easily in the Internet age, subsequent investigation can last an inordinately long time. The investigators know that time cures all. For instance, we still have no idea how Yang Dacai got all his wristwatches, although Yang has already fallen into oblivion.
The Shaanxi Security Supervision chief provoked national outrage for his ill-timed grin at the scene of bus crash that killed 36 people on August 26. Angered Internet users identified no less than five watches on Yang's wrist in published photos.
Yang acted proactively by explaining online his penchant for watches, adding that he had purchased five watches over a 10-year period. But soon six more watches had been identified.
A probe seemed inevitable, and is still dragging on. According to the latest report, Yang is working as usual in his office.
Nor do we know what Fang Daguo, a military officer, did to a flight attendant.
Apparently in a state of intoxication, Fang and his wife physically assaulted a flight attendant on August 29 on a Southern Airlines flight, over how their luggage should be placed. The flight attendant's uniform was ripped off, and she suffered extensive scratches to her skin.
A hasty internal probe said Fang had already said sorry to the attendant, and a reconciliation had been reached.
But the media would not let go of it, and after keeping up the heat for some time, on September 2 it was announced that Fang had been suspended from his post pending further investigation.
In the latest report, Fang's colleagues could no longer confirm that Fang had ever been deprived of his title.
In the Internet age people's attention span has become so short-lived that government departments have clearly found a new way in pacifying online ire: delayed satisfaction.
Will the latest GM rice scandal be similarly managed?
I have little doubt, for unlike the previous scandals, a time-consuming investigation into the GM scandal can actually invest the probe with an aura of thoroughness and objectivity. The public have every reason to know the official version of truth, hopefully in the not so distant future.
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