For anyone who has never had a front row seat for an activist battle, with true Davey and Goliath participants, here's your ticket to a grass roots showdown.
The people of Hawai'i have been the biotech lab and petrie dish for the world's genetically modified crops. Their school children have been doused with experimental herbicides and their papaya export markets have been destroyed.
They have fought tooth and nail to preserve what remains uncontaminated.
All the genetically modified crop lines are developed there as well as vast numbers of secret pharma crops. The corporate giants have run roughshod over local officials.
They are in a show down and asking for support from outside the islands. An explanation of the issues and basis for concern was drafted by MD and gmo expert, Dr. Lorrin Pang. A simple statement or adaptation of the provided text, with the required header will do it.
We can't save the world in a day, but we can help to save a beautiful piece of it and live to fight another day. Here in their own words, "Blessings to those who save the seed! Aloha and mahalo nui loa!!" (Extra big thanks!!)
Here is the header information for testimony
email to testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov or fax
to 1 800 535 3859 (or 586 6501 on Oahu)
Subject: HB 1453 and HB1454
Dear Public Access Room:
Please deliver 35 copies of my attached testimony for HB1454 or 1453
for the hearing to be held Friday, February 2, 2007 at 8:30am in Room 329.
Thank you. (your name, location and organization if any)
_________________________________________________________________
To: testimony
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 7:54 AM
Subject: HB 1453 and HB1454
Dear Public Access Room:
Please deliver 35 copies of my attached testimony for HB1454 or 1453 for the hearing to be held Friday, February 2, 2007 at 8:30am in Room 329.
Thank you.
Lorrin Pang
____________________________________________________________________
To: Representative Josh Green , Chair
Representative John Mizuno, Vice-chair
Committee on Health
From: Lorrin Pang, MD, MPH
As private citizen
Wailuku, Hawaii
Date: Friday, February 2, 2007 at 8:30AM in Room 329
Subject: Support HB 1454 (and HB1453), Relating to genetically modified organisms.
Dear Chairperson Green and Vice Chair Mizuno:
According to the World Health Organization GMO food products have not been adequately tested (human data is missing) and therefore safety is unknown. It is wrong to say GMO's are: safe, dangerous, not safe, or not dangerous. While it is correct to say (as per Hawaii Dept of Health) "harm has not been shown", neither has safety been shown. In this regard nothing has been shown. And so we are exposed to an unknown.
BANGKOK POST
October 13, 2004
"At this point, we have no evidence to say that it is dangerous to consume food products that contain GMOs, but at the same time we also don't know its negative side. So, we have to say that we do not know the adverse health effects of GM food,'' WHO assistant director-general Kerstin Leitner said yesterday.
According to the precautionary principle humans should not ingest, inhale or inject products (except under strict voluntary experimental conditions) whose toxicity is unknown. Toxicity does not have to be zero, since nothing is totally safe, but we must know the limits of toxicity before exposing humans. Many in industry misinterpret the precautionary principle claiming that it says one has to show zero toxicity before use (impossible) and thus they, erroneously, dismiss the principle altogether.
Industry and regulatory agencies point to "health" approvals by the FDA to justify GMO use. Regulatory agencies (State) cannot "rubber stamp" approvals by other regulators (FDA). They must examine the data and reach their own conclusions. There is scant to none human safety data for GMO's. The FDA bases its approval on substantial equivalence to non-GMO foods. The data (plant/laboratory/animal) for this assumption must be examined by the DOH. The National Academy of Sciences has examined the available data and reached quite the opposite conclusion – that GMO food crops pose significantly higher risk of unintended health effects (U S National Academy of Sciences, Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods – Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects www.nap.edu/books/0309092094/html/4.html ). Without the obligation to even look for the data the State regulators do not even know what they do not know. Nor do they seem to understand what needs to be known prior to human exposure (human data). These are not word games. Consider again the opening quote by the World Health Organization.
The FDA cites historical data to "confirm" GMO food safety. Four major crops have been marketed for several years without known toxicity. First, evaluation for safety post marketing is impossible without labeling (GMO's are not labeled). Second, long term effects often are not seen for decades (tobacco, asbestos, organophosphate pesticides, etc) both for health and for the environment. Finally, GMO's are to be considered on a case by case basis. Even if the four released crops were safe, this fact cannot "grandfather" safety issues for new mutations or new crops.
The medical field has seen dangerous, unexplained, unpredictable side effects with human to human gene transfers (gene therapy) as well as to GMO pharmaceuticals (TGN1412). Exposure to GM crops/products should not occur without stricter safety guarantees and monitoring. It is a conflict of interest for industry or their allies to have an influence on setting adequate safety criteria. The general public should not be exposed to massive, long term doses of such products with unknown toxicity, whether it be in occupational, community or consumer settings. We have seen how commercial GM crops have contaminated their non-GM analogs, in the case of Hawaii, the GM papaya. This past year there was massive contamination of non-GM rice by experimentally planted GM rice. While there are serious legal and economic consequences, the health issues have not been adequately addressed. It is time that an honest system be put in place to better distinguish between safe and dangerous products. This job rests with the Dept of Health which has the authority to set up an independent, expert review committee on a case by case basis. If the resources or expertise are lacking then a moratorium on GM crops should be put in place until such a system can be designed, demonstrated and enforced. The current economic benefits to the state (jobs) are merely a form of "enticement" which should not distract from unanswered health and environmental issues. Added caution is required since GMO's are life forms which may be highly invasive/selected for – and difficult to control or recall once in the environment.
I ask you to support either or both HB 1453 or HB1454.
As private citizen
Lorrin Pang, MD, MPH
Maui District Health Officer
WHO Consultant since 1985
Consultant to Glaxo-Smith-Kline Pharmaceuticals
Retired US Army Medical Corp
America's Best Doctors 2006-7
Newsvine note ~ Published to GMO and Activist groups.
