Last week we ran press conferences on climate change and CFS/ME. The subjects are complex and contentious, and there is always the potential for jarring or simplistic headlines and strong reactions from the vocal critics of research in these fields. But it was the criticism from within the scientific community that we had not anticipated. read more

The diets of rodents in food safety and toxicology studies is the topic of a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, in which the authors report the presence of contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, and genetically modified organisms in the feed or lab rodents. The authors go on to suggest that such contaminants could affect the reliability of toxicity testing in general. read more

Environmental Sciences Europe re-published a study retracted from Food and Chemical Toxicology by Gilles-Eric Séralini which purported to show rats fed the herbicide Roundup and Roundup-tolerant GM maize developed cancerous tumours. read more

The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, has reportedly requested for Gilles-Eric Séralini to withdraw the study that purported to show that GM maize and the pesticide Roundup could lead to a high incidence of cancer in rats. read more

The European Food Safety Authority’s final review reaffirmed its initial assessment that Séralini et al’s conclusions, in a paper in Food and Chemical Toxicology which linked GM maize to the development of tumours in rats, cannot be regarded as scientifically sound because of inadequacies in the design, reporting and analysis of the study. read more

Guest post from Tom Sheldon. On 18th September we were tipped off by several respected journalists about a peer-reviewed paper … read more

The European Food Safety Authority conducted a review of the recent paper that purported to show rats developing tumours after eating GM maize. They found the study was of insufficient scientific quality to be considered as valid for risk assessment. read more

A study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology purported to show that rats fed on GM maize were more likely to develop cancerous tumours and to die prematurely. read more