Three
officials who approved and conducted a controversial test feeding genetically
modified rice to school children in central China's Hunan province had been
sacked, authorities said on Thursday.
The
officials were punished for "violating relevant regulations, scientific
ethics and academic integrity," according to a statement jointly released
by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Zhejiang Academy
of Medical Sciences, and the Hunan provincial CDC.
The three
institutions said in the statement that they are "deeply sorry" about
the negative impact caused by this test which was jointly conducted by Chinese
and American researchers.
The
officials punished include Yin Shi'an from the Chinese CDC, Wang Yin from the
Zhejiang academy and Hu Yuming from the Hunan CDC.
Yin Shi'an,
China CDC's National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety's maternity and
child nutrition office director, was removed from his post, according to the
statement. The institute disqualified him from any scientific research for
three years, and revoked his title of doctoral mentor.
Wang Yin, a
section chief of the Zhejiang academy, was sacked by that province's health
authority.
Yin and
Wang were punished for failing to inform the school children and their parents
of the fact that the rice was GM, and concealing the truth from relevant
authorities and the school, according to the statement.
The
Zhejiang academy also disqualified Wang from professional promotion and
dismissed her from its academic board and ethics committee. Wang also received
a disciplinary warning from the academy's Party committee.
Hu Yuming,
an official of the Hunan CDC, was removed from office for failure in
supervision and dereliction of duty and was warned by the Party committee of
the provincial CDC, the statement said.
Greenpeace
first disclosed the test in late August, saying that researchers fed GM Golden
Rice which is rich in beta carotene, to 25 children aged between six and eight
in Hunan.
The
Ministry of Health later ordered China CDC to investigate whether dozens of
children in Hunan were used as GM food test subjects.
Greenpeace
uncovered test from a paper published in the August edition of The American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition which claimed that Golden Rice is effective in
providing vitamin A to children.
The
research approved by the National Institutes of Health of the US in December
2002, was led by Tang Guangwen, director of the Carotenoid and Health
Laboratory of Tufts university in the US. It was intended to explore ways in
preventing deficiency of Vitamin A among children. Tang conducted the research
in cooperation with Yin and Wang.
China CDC
discovered that the test was conducted in 2008 on 80 pupils in Hengnan County
of Hunan Province, with 25 of them each being fed 60 grams of Golden Rice on
June 2.
According
to the statement, Tang cooked the Golden Rice in the US and brought the cooked
rice to China on May 29, 2008 without due declaration to relevant Chinese
authorities.
Four days
later, Tang and other research participants recooked the GM rice and mixed it
with ordinary rice and served it for the children's lunch.
Prior to
the test, the research team held a meeting to brief the children's parents or
guardians, but did not tell the parents that the test would be using GM food.
The team handed out only the last page of informed consent forms to parents and
guardians and asked them to sign on the page which had no mention of Golden
Rice or GM rice, according to the statement.
Related Articles:
Costa Rica still says NO to genetically modified corn
Kenya Govt outlaws importation of GMOs
Costa Rica still says NO to genetically modified corn
Kenya Govt outlaws importation of GMOs
No comments:
Post a Comment