just to be here and thank you all for coming i'd like to extend my own personal thanks to to to manage and to the sponsors of this event because i know without their generous support we wouldn't be here this evening as fran mentioned my background is in basic molecular biology argues genetic engineering methods as a routine virtually daily method in my research of gene organization and control and development of human gene therapy up to cations and it's from that background that i view also the developments of genetic engineering the use of genetic engineering within an agricultural context and i hope to illustrate to you this evening why i'm very concerned about the way that genetic engineering genetic modification has been used in agriculture and why we do need if we decide we do need these crops at all and that's highly questionable in its in the first place then we need to go forward with these products extremely in a very cautious manner so what i will do the same thing i will look at the source is a mechanisms of the health risks th released last last summer why should we be concerned about g m foods i'm sure we've all heard from industry regulators governments even that actually g m foods are the most thorough really tested foods ever produced in human history and that they have been passed the safe and that we should consume them with no fear of harm first of all i would like to consider genetic modification g m within as a technology the first thing we need to realize about g m is that it is a purely artificial technology for producing a new crop variety the fact that it's artificial of course doesn't automatically make it unsafe is the consequences of the g m transformation process that gives us cause for concern and by us i mean scientists like myself around the world the the key points to recognize about the g m transformation process is slide is that it allows the transfer of genes between totally unrelated organisms normally transfer genetic material is between related organisms strawberries with strawberries potatoes with potatoes if all week with wheat but with g m you can transfer genes into a crop from any organism that you like bacteria viruses plant unrelated plants animals and so forth so it crosses species barrys allows gene transfer across species barriers and as a result it produces combinations of genes that have never evolved to work together in a home in a harmonious integrated man and now this is very very important point so i'm just going to spend a few minutes on that what at the time when g m crops were first conceived and started to be developed in the early one nine hundred eighty s the concept of a concept or understanding of gene organization  function was very very rudimentary and genes were considered as isolated units of information and as a result they could be transferred between species as a result with total predictability i'm afraid  context and that therefore when you take a gene from one organism and randomly inserted into the d n a of a totally unrelated organism you're placing a gene in an environment where it has not evolved to work in an integrated man r with the surrounding genes in that organism that as a result of that you g m brings with it an inherent unpredictable component in terms of gene function in addition to that the situation where that the combination of effects from the g m transformation process the combinations of novel genes that normally would not come together plus the general destructive effect the mutagenic effect of the producing new talks in so new allergens and a disturbed altered nutritional value in the food these are proven you can there is evidence to show or this destructive effect this is measure this is stropped effect of the gene transformation process is a measured phenomenon and as a result for me this is why we need to thoroughly generically as evaluate g m foods especially for chronic both acute and especially chronic long t but they are highly regulated are they not so should we be worried unfortunately yes g m foods by international law have to be regulated but regulation of g m foods around the world is very highly variable in nation a totally deregulated product generally recognized as safe or grass is how they are perceived and that companies can release them with essentially no safety testing whatsoever near enough but in europe we have a much stricter regulatory system here in australia i would put you somewhere in between the two usa and europe but it regardless of which territory we're considering for me all regulatory evaluations of g m foods or agencies whatever they do is totally inadequate and it's inadequate on many issues but the key ones for me are that they do not fundamentally place they do not fundamentally question the g m transformation process  within our under advancing understanding of genetics they never question the fact that when you move genes around in so between spaces randomly insert them that this is not the way life has evolved to function in other words they never fundamentally question the technology secondly they're only accepts safety data data where it's requested and submitted from the developer company no it no independent safety evaluation of the g m food is conducted for regula molecule nutritional components and lastly and this is most important there is no requirement anywhere in the world by any regulatory agency to conduct long term toxicity evaluation and this is important again because g m has unpredictable outcomes you don't know in advance what the consequences are of the g m transformation process  because you don't know the only way to evaluate safety is generically you basically need to conduct a long term feeding trial in animals and see what happens is no point in just doing a gross by chemical analysis and say oh the  is roughly equivalent to the non g m therefore it's safe i'm sorry that's nowhere near good enough you need to conduct these long term studies and that's just not going on anywhere in the world for regulatory purposes at all what could be the potential exist in the native bacteria which farmers can spray on the crops as a as a natural insecticide and with that comes new potential safety concerns secondly we have of course the fact that eighty percent of all the  world have been done so to tolerate application of her besides particularly blood for site base for besides the most common of which is around up what is the outcome of that high levels of exposure high levels of consumption for farm animals process and these novel combinations of genes that it brings about i would say that there is evidence of toxicity arising from all three of these processes which i would very briefly like to review to so controlled animal feeding studies to show clear signs of toxicity link with the consumption of g m crops what we have saying in studies conducted not only by university based people but even in some of we've seen in these animal feeding studies is multiple organ damage multiple system damage such as liver and kidney damage functional damage immune system disturbances allergic type reactions digestive system so what we're seeing from industry studies for example we're seeing rats fed these two varieties if we focus on the commercialized by the way i'm only going to show you still summarized briefly for you studies on commercialized m crops in other words things that you and i may be eating now there are many studies showing toxicity toxic outcomes from long commercialise g m crops but the ones to concern us are the commercialized ones if we focus on the  insecticide g m crops corn in particular industry studies on two varieties of bt talk saying show signs of liver and kidney function or damage after just ninety days of consumption of these products academic studies have used rats mice pigs use have shown multiple system and organ damage ranging from liver and kidney disturbances immune system disturbances in both mice and in in pigs to dodge intestinal damage in use and lambs and this particular worrying study here at the bottom from egypt showing that even after just ninety one days of consumption there were multiple organ changes in weight by chemistry severe damage in structure and function including liver kidney testers and intestines and this is a variety of maize that's approved for commercial growing in europe and imported in large quantities what could be causing these signs of toxicity this is are we come back to this list is it the bt talk saying or is it some other aspect of the product caused  effect of the g m transformation product that is an unresolved question what we do know is that there's something wrong with these g m crops what i want to focus on in there my presentation is the consequences of the higher exposures to h tolerate go out for say application and this is the world's most use pesticide and the vast majority of g m soy is genetically engineered to tolerate life aside and as a result not surprisingly you find worryingly high special clothing no masks no gloves just spray it away in the weeds in your garden because it's safe the regulator says it's safe but is it industry study let's turn to the industry lifetime of the mice twenty four months there were more acute signs of aging in the liver is what the question is is the g m process or the round up residues in the feed that are causing these effects or maybe a combination of the two union and in a stroller we have the same set limit of daily exposure what is known as the acceptable daily intake acceptable daily intake is what the regulator says we can consume on a daily basis day in day out and not suffer any damage to our health and as a say european union australia that value is point three million grams per kilogram body white per day for somebody like me that's a little bit over twenty milligrams per day in data and all come to a different conclusion as to what is safe to consume on a daily basis or not for me that's already very suspicious when we look at the data that the german regulator used in europe to set the safety limits for us we actually came to a different conclusion we thought they ignored very important evidence in certain animals animal tests and that we thought they'd set the level three times too high so there's already we were suspicious years ago about about the data behind the safe limits and also what the regulator ignores is the fact damage d n a you mess up your gene function and that could lead to cancer but what is emerging as well very recently is this last point which worries me most and that is increasing evidence that glide for sale is what is known as an end to create  destructive chemical we all know what hormones are because we hear about them all the time insulin is a woman gross woman is a woman and steroids are hormones and we've all got these in our bodies females are different complement of woman's to men and the crucial including life or say why is that worrying and the crew destruction is now linked with the whole spectrum of hope of four of incredibly serious illnesses hormone related cancers a d h the learning disabilities that infertility heart disease diabetes obesity you trust sunday a pediatrician at new york university school of medicine isn't that what you study anyway is a matter he said that these results suggest that regulating and a current destructive chemicals could produce substantial economic benefit but what about the health benefit that would be less than the cost of implementing safer alternatives and producing the economic benefits clearly we need for the research but there is a greater than ninety nine percent probability that these chemicals contribute to disease he's absolutely right the studies but there are some very good studies that show him really indicate that even at low doses of a second act as an in the current destructive chemical in in frog and chick embryos it can interfere with  to large amounts of round up because they're growing so much g m soy in that country these days and then in these tissue culture cell experiments life is safe for me has been shown very very clearly to mimic the effect of  augment the function of insurgent resulting in hormone dependent human breast cancer cell growth so in other words not only some human breast cancers as some of you may be aware are dependent on growth on east region risks that are associated from g m foods and also their associated pesticides focusing particularly on going for say base herbicides obviously we are and we do have a short period of time this evening if you wish to follow up any of the points that i'll be raising this evening in greater detail please go onto the internet to the earth open source website and download for yourself a free copy of the report that