Paris - French scientists published
evidence on Thursday of pesticide contamination of lab rat feed which they said
discredited historic toxicity studies, though commentators questioned the
analysis.
Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the
study reported finding pollutants in 13 different types of lab rat food from
five continents.
They detected residue of 262 pesticides,
four heavy metals, and 22 genetically modified organisms, said the team led by
Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen in Normandy.
This contamination with chemicals whose
"toxic effects" are documented, may be the real cause of so-called
"spontaneous" diseases developing in lab rats, they said.
In food safety trials, these spontaneous
diseases are attributed to genetic factors rather than the chemical being
tested.
This all placed a big question mark over a
vast swathe of past research into food toxicity - data which is used over and
over again to compare new findings against, said the team.
"All these data taken together
invalidate the use of historical control data," wrote the team.
Study criticised
But experts who did not take part in the
study said the analysis "lacks discipline" and dismissed its
conclusions as "speculative".
"For their interpretations to be
compelling, Seralini et al would need to do feeding experiments with
'non-contaminated chow' and show that there is a significantly lower level of
cancer incidence in those animals on the non-contaminated chow," said
plant scientist Cathie Martin of the John Innes Centre, England.
Pharmacology professor Alan Boobis of
Imperial College London said that the levels of individual contaminants were
"extremely low" and not at "toxic levels" as stated in the
paper's title.
And toxicology expert Tamara Galloway of
the University of Exeter, in comments to the Science Media Centre, said
"the discussion speculates beyond the evidence presented in this
paper."
Previous studies
The study authors include many of the same
team that published a contested study in 2012 linking pesticide-treated,
genetically-modified corn with tumours in lab rats.
That paper was withdrawn by the journal
which first printed it, and later republished in a different one.
Critics said the rats used in that study
were of a strain prone to cancer, and were fed a diet that did not resemble the
animals' natural food intake.
"The current work is no less
inconclusive than the previous study," said Maurice Moloney, chief
executive officer of the Global Institute for Food Security in Canada.
"The new paper suggests we ought to
doubt an entire testing system but does not provide the evidence to back up
such doubt."
Publication of the latest study was delayed
last month after PLOS ONE demanded certain clarifications.