GM Watch
  • Main Menu
    • Home
    • News
      • Newsletter subscription
      • Daily Digest
      • News Reviews
      • News Languages
    • Articles
      • GM Myth Makers
      • GM Reports
      • GM Quotes
      • GM Myths
      • Non-GM successes
      • GM Firms
        • Monsanto: a history
        • Monsanto: resources
        • Bayer: a history
        • Bayer: resources
    • Videos
      • Latest Videos
      • Must see videos
      • Cornell videos
      • Agriculture videos
      • Labeling videos
      • Animals videos
      • Corporations videos
      • Corporate takeover videos
      • Contamination videos
      • Latin America videos
      • India videos
      • Asia videos
      • Food safety videos
      • Songs videos
      • Protests videos
      • Biofuel myths videos
      • Index of GM crops and foods
      • Index of speakers
      • Health Effects
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donations
    • How donations will help us
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides    
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Newsletter subscription
    • News Reviews
    • News Languages
      • Notícias em Português
      • Nieuws in het Nederlands
      • Nachrichten in Deutsch
    • Archive
      • 2021 articles
      • 2020 articles
      • 2019 articles
      • 2018 articles
      • 2017 articles
      • 2016 articles
      • 2015 articles
      • 2014 articles
      • 2013 articles
      • 2012 articles
      • 2011 articles
      • 2010 articles
      • 2009 articles
      • 2008 articles
      • 2007 articles
      • 2006 articles
      • 2005 articles
      • 2004 articles
      • 2003 articles
      • 2002 articles
      • 2001 articles
      • 2000 articles
  • Articles
    • GM Myth Makers
    • GM Reports
    • How donations will help us
    • GM Quotes
    • GM Myths
    • Non-GM successes
    • GM Firms
      • Monsanto: a history
      • Monsanto: resources
      • Bayer: a history
      • Bayer: resources
  • Videos
    • Index of speakers
    • Glyphosate Videos
    • Latest Videos
    • Must see videos
    • Health Effects
    • Cornell videos
    • Agriculture videos
    • Labeling videos
    • Animals videos
    • Corporations videos
    • Corporate takeover videos
    • Contamination videos
    • Latin America videos
    • India videos
    • Asia videos
    • Food safety videos
    • Songs videos
    • Protests videos
    • Biofuel myths videos
    • Index of GM crops and foods
  • Contact
  • About
  • Donations

LATEST NEWS

  • Survey: EU citizens reject genetic engineering of wild species with gene drives

  • Glyphosate and Roundup disturb gut microbiome and blood biochemistry at doses that regulators claim to be safe

  • Landmark Agent Orange court case against agrochemical giants gets underway

  • Genetic breakdown of molecular mechanism underpinning GM "sterile" insect techniques

  • International Take Action: Tell US Senate: Vote No on Mr Monsanto (Tom Vilsack)

GMWatch Facebook cornfield banner

SCIENCE SUPPORTS REGULATION OF GENE EDITING

Plant tissue cultures

GENE EDITING: UNEXPECTED OUTCOMES AND RISKS

Damaged DNA on fire

GENE-EDITED CROPS & FOODS

Help stop the new threat

LATEST VIDEOS

  • Seed keepers and truth tellers: From the frontlines of GM agriculture
  • Myths and Truths of Gene-Edited Foods
  • Dangers of gene-edited foods

News Menu

  • Latest News
  • News Reviews
  • Archive
  • Languages

Please support GMWatch

Donations

You can donate via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Some of you have opted to give a regular donation. This is greatly appreciated as it helps place us on a more stable financial basis. Thank you for your support!

Science shouldn't be for sale – we need reform to industry-funded studies to keep people safe

Details
Published: 19 February 2020
Twitter

We must be able to trust the integrity of scientific research as we work to protect our families and our planet

EXCERPT: We don’t know if the LPT glyphosate studies were in any way falsified, but the consumer groups, Corporate Europe Observatory, PAN Germany and Global 2000, say they now have to be considered suspect. And, they say, the scandal underscores the risks of a regulatory system that relies heavily on the findings of industry-funded studies when determining if products are safe.
---

Science shouldn't be for sale – we need reform to industry-funded studies to keep people safe

Carey Gillam
The Guardian, 18 Feb 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/18/science-shouldnt-be-for-sale-we-need-reform-industry-funded-studies-monsanto
[links to sources at this URL]

* We must be able to trust the integrity of scientific research as we work to protect our families and our planet

Not again. News out of Europe last week revealed that more than 20 scientific studies submitted to regulators to prove the safety of the popular weedkilling chemical glyphosate came from a large German laboratory that has been accused of fraud and other wrongdoing.

The findings come amid global debate over whether or not glyphosate causes cancer and other health problems and if regulators and chemical companies proclaiming the chemical’s safety actually have credible science on their side.

Amid a government investigation into the Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT), investigators representing three European non-profit consumer advocacy groups are raising concerns about the validity of the glyphosate studies generated by the Hamburg facility. No significant concerns with glyphosate were found, according to the tests, three of which looked for glyphosate-related mutagenicity. Monsanto and other chemical companies needed those studies and others to submit to regulators in order to obtain re-approval to sell glyphosate herbicide products in Europe.

We don’t know if the LPT glyphosate studies were in any way falsified, but the consumer groups, Corporate Europe Observatory, PAN Germany and Global 2000, say they now have to be considered suspect. And, they say, the scandal underscores the risks of a regulatory system that relies heavily on the findings of industry-funded studies when determining if products are safe.

There certainly appears to be ample cause for concern. The Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology (LPT), which is accused of abusing test animals in addition to doctoring data, was certified as adhering to “good laboratory practices”. But multiple whistleblowers who worked in the lab have said that falsifying study results was routine.

Harald Ebner, a member of the German Parliament Bundestag, said the LPT laboratory “has obviously delivered the desired results and swept unpleasant results under the carpet”. All LPT scientific work must now be investigated, including the studies submitted to help support glyphosate approvals in Europe, he said.

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment says it is monitoring the situation but sees no reason to question the overall assessment of glyphosate safety given the 24 GLP studies were part of more than 900 other studies or papers that were part of the European glyphosate evaluation.

News of the laboratory fraud allegations comes at a time of growing fears among consumer and environmentalists that corporate-driven “science” is doing much to protect corporate profits but little to protect public health and safety. When corporations pay for the research, invariably the findings seem to support the safety of whatever products the corporations are trying to sell.

Hundreds of studies done by US contract laboratories in the 1970s, 80s and 90s were found to be fraudulent, including some tests used by Monsanto in representations to the US Environmental Protection Agency regarding the company’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide.

The allegations of fraud at the German lab also add to evidence of Monsanto, which was bought by Bayer AG in 2018, influencing scientific studies into the safety of their products. Internal Monsanto files obtained in litigation show multiple tactics were employed by the company and industry allies to manipulate scientific papers about its products, including using ghost-writing research papers and secret funding front groups to support regulatory approvals.

Surely one need not be a cynic to recognize that corporate-funded science is likely to be biased in favor of corporate product approvals – even if that bias might come at the expense of public safety. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise, in light of the examples of deception and fraud that have accumulated over the years.

The German laboratory in question is set to close down later this month. But the larger problem persists.

It is well past time for reform of a badly broken system that lacks both truth and transparency. We must be able to trust the integrity of scientific research as we work to protect our families, our communities and our planet.

Regulatory bodies should reform their practices of relying on industry-funded studies, and when fraud is found – be it in the laboratory or in ghostwritten research papers – punishment should be swift and unforgiving.

Science should never be for sale.

Carey Gillam is a journalist and author and a public interest researcher for US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group. She is a Guardian US columnist

Menu

Home

News

News Archive

News Reviews

Videos

Articles

GM Myth Makers

GM Reports

GM Myths

GM Quotes

How Donations Will Help Us

Contacts

Contact Us

About

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

Content 1999 - 2021 GMWatch.
Web Development By SCS Web Design