AFTER pesticides, thalidomide, asbestos and CFCs, the next major environmental or health disaster is likely to be caused by genetically modified organisms (GMOs), says the government鈥檚 independent panel on sustainable development.
Britain does not have an appropriate system for the long-term monitoring of GMOs that have been released into the environment, the panel warns. Its latest report, published this week, criticises the government for failing to set up an overall strategy for GMOs in uses ranging from medicine to agriculture. And it calls for a new top-level committee of medical researchers, environmentalists, industrialists and others to draw up basic principles that regulators in individual fields of application could use.
鈥淕MOs can鈥檛 be recalled once they are released,鈥� says the chairman of the panel Crispin Tickell, Warden of Green College, Oxford. 鈥淲e have to think about the safety and well-being of future generations. Too much control at present is through a system of nods and winks.鈥�
Advertisement