GM corn causes illness among Philippinos

[JohnyCanuck]

GM Ban Long Overdue
Dozens Ill & Five Deaths in the Philippines
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members' website.Details here

Unexplained sicknesses and deaths

In July 2003, a farmer living in a small village in the south of Mindanao Island of The Philippines, found himself and his entire family suddenly falling ill with fever and respiratory, intestinal and skin ailments. They were not alone; at least fifty-one residents of Sitio Kalyong (Barangay Landan, Polomolok, South Cotabato Province) had similar complaints at around the same time. They all lived within 100 m of a field planted with GM maize, and their illnesses coincided with the GM maize flowering time.

Another resident of Sitio Kalyong, said <1> that the GM-maize pollen made him dizzy, gave him severe headaches, chest pains and caused him to vomit.

The field in Sitio Kalyong belonged to a local official who bought five bags of Monsanto's Bt maize seed (Dekalb818YG with Cry1Ab from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis ), enough to plant 5 hectares. He paid 4 500 pesos per bag, which was more than twice as much as the non-GM variety at 2 200 pesos per bag. The premium price included the promise of a small vehicle if the harvest turned out to be good, as it was supposed to. In the event, the promise was broken on both counts: the harvest of 93 sacks compared poorly with the usual 150 sacks per ha, and the small vehicle was never delivered. The local official stopped planting the Bt maize after 2003.

As part of an investigation to determine what made the villagers ill, one of the farmers was “volunteered” to venture inside the Bt maize field in the presence of more than 10 witnesses, as he explained to me via an interpreter. “Within 5 minutes, I could not breathe and felt something extraordinary on my face,” he recalled. The others could see that his face had swollen up and remarked that it was “very dangerous”.

In fact, the farmer is ill to this day. Every now and again, he feels weak in his limbs and numb in his hands and feet. He held up the back of his right hand to show me the index finger. A yellowish-brown discoloration and thickening of the fingernail had developed since he was exposed to the GM pollen.

Continued at: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMBanLongOverdue.php

[UL_Approved]

1. Is this intentional or just a huge mistake?

I would not be surprised if this was an unintentional by-product of breeding corn with an errant gene activated or misunderstood that this could happen. But it would not surprise me if this was intentional either.

As a resident of a rural area, I can attest to this pattern. Certain types of wheat have severe pollen issues when flowering. This gives people severe sinus and respiratory distress. Wheat that has been bred in a standard fashion is less irritating, but still has its difficulties. This is one of the darker sides of the dangers in GM food, and is something that is being swept under the rug fast.

[fed-up]

3. I always wondered about wheat hybridization and food allergies...I became

wheat and dairy intolerant about 5 years ago. After learning about allergies that could be triggered by GE foods because of changes to their genetic structure, I also started to wonder if there was something about wheat and how it has been modified so much throughout history that is contributing to many more cases of wheat intolerance/allergy.

I know there have been major changes to milk.

If I eat the wrong foods my pinkie fingers starts to break out in blisters and then it moves on to my other fingers. I also start to feel completely crapola and severely fatigued.

The Sheep Look Up/John Brunner really hit home for me.

[bbinacan]

2. What other pollutants could

have caused this?

[TheWraith]

4. Sounds more like an allergy, or an adverse reaction

Than any kind of true disease. It would be interesting to find out how this stuff was tested, and what types of humans had contact with it prior to it being placed on the market.

[file83]

5. Oh joy. I just can't wait for this to cross pollinate with other plants.

Then we can all start getting exotic allergies and mutated genes. I always wanted to be an X-man. I joke of course. This is really messed up stuff. By organic!!!

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I heard that it was GM corn in the dog food that poisoned and

killed hundreds of dogs last month.

[NickB79]

7. The corn was contaminated with aflatoxin

It can be found on all corn, GM, hybrid or organic. It is caused by growth of a fungus that produces the toxin. The fact that the corn was GM had no role to play in the dog poisoning, as aflatoxin poisoning has been around long before GM corn was introduced.