China sacks officials involved in GM rice test

Want China Times, Xinhua 2012-12-08

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