When U.S. regulators approved Monsanto’s
genetically modified “Bt” corn, they knew it would add a deadly poison
into our food supply. That’s what it was designed to do. The corn’s DNA is equipped with a gene from soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) that produces the Bt-toxin. It’s a pesticide; it breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.
But
Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) swore up and
down that it was only insects that would be hurt. The Bt-toxin, they
claimed, would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and
not have any impact on all of us trusting corn-eating consumers.
Oops. A study just proved them wrong.
Doctors
at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found the corn’s Bt-toxin
in the blood of pregnant women and their babies, as well as in
non-pregnant women.(i)
(Specifically, the toxin was identified in 93% of 30 pregnant women,
80% of umbilical blood in their babies, and 67% of 39 non-pregnant
women.) The study has been accepted for publication in the peer reviewed
journal Reproductive Toxicology.
According to the UK Daily Mail,
this study, which “appears to blow a hole in” safety claims, “has
triggered calls for a ban on imports and a total overhaul of the safety
regime for genetically modified (GM) crops and food.” Organizations from
England to New Zealand are now calling for investigations and for GM
crops to be halted due to the serious implications of this finding. link
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