The British Medical Association has called for an "open-ended" moratorium on the commercial planting of GM crops because of its concerns about their potential health and environmental effects.
The single biggest organisation representing doctors in Britain (with 15,000 members) urged a more cautious approach to GM foods in an attempt to re-establish public trust in science. Publication of a report it had prepared was brought forward to yesterday after details were leaked.
Campaign groups were quick to say that a report of such authority justified an immediate ban on GM foods. The director of Greenpeace, Mr Doug Parr, said that the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, should listen to the voice of British doctors. "He should do what the BMA says and stop this genetic experiment on the public."
Dr Liz Cullen, of the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, welcomed the BMA findings on the basis that they reflected many of the serious concerns its members had about GM foods.
Ms Patricia McKenna, the Green Party MEP, also welcomed the report. "But what is worrying", she said, "is that Ireland's Food Safety Authority came out last week saying the current GM foods on the market are not a health risk. I think the FSAI has taken a very irresponsible approach to GM foods by making assurances about future risks which are difficult to stand over, particularly in the light of the BMA report."
The FSAI report confined itself to possible health effects from current GM products only, unlike the BMA report, which considered potential environmental effects. The FSAI, nonetheless, also voiced similar concerns about the use of antibiotic resistance "gene markers" in GM foods from a human health perspective.
The Irish Medical Organisation, the BMA's equivalent in the Republic, has previously noted the concerns about GM foods, but has adopted a neutral stance. Its president, Dr Fenton Howell, said yesterday that the FSAI line was "welcome and sensible", even if it did not meet all the concerns of consumers.
He accepted that consumer confidence was critical to acceptance of GM foods and agreed that adequate labelling was vital. There was a need to prevent emotion taking over from science, he said, but equally the "apparent benefits" of GM foods should be realisable without any of the potential dangers. This required ongoing caution. Referring to the BMA report, he said that the IMO would take all positions into account.
The BMA report urged more research into the environmental, agricultural and health impacts of GM foods.
The biotech multinational Monsanto, the leading developer of GM crops, rejected the BMA's assertion that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the introduction of commercial GM crops. Its spokesman, Mr Tony Coombes, said: "How much more regulation do the BMA want? GM crops and GM foods are the most highly regulated novel products available."
Meanwhile, later today a panel of independent scientists, appointed by the Royal Society, will deliver their verdict on the controversial work of Dr Arpad Pusztai, who suggested that GM potatoes could damage people's immune systems, a finding which unnerved a great many consumers.
