CONCERNS about trials in Scotland of genetically modified crops have been raised by MSPs.

The Scottish Parliament’s health committee said in a report yesterday that existing safeguards were inadequate and that the Scottish Executive should do more to examine the effects on human health in trial areas.

Trials are under way in three sites in Scotland and are designed to test the effectiveness of a herbicide on GM and non-GM oilseed rape.

The MSPs said that the Executive’s approach had not been sufficiently robust and that the risk assessment procedures in relation to public health were flawed. They said that the procedures did not appear to follow a standard format, that they sought to prove the safety of GM organisms rather than to assess potential hazards, and that they did not identify areas of uncertainty.

The MSPs said that pharmaceutical-style testing should be applied to GM crops, with more research into the effect of GM pollen, and for all GM crops considered for trials to be tested as if they were to enter the food chain.

They also called for more information to be made public.

An Executive spokesman said that there was no risk involved in the trials.

“There will be no question of releasing the crops being grown for farm-scale trials if there are any scientific reasons to believe they pose any greater threat to human health, or the environment, than the equivalent non-GM varieties,” he said. “The precautionary principle is applied throughout these tests.”

• Vandalism of GM trials has nothing to do with environmentalism, but aims to suppress research into the ecological benefits of the technology, according to John Pidgeon, director of the Broom’s Barn Research Station in Suffolk.

  Dr Pidgeon said: “The public has a right to know about environmental research, and we have faced repeated attempts to halt this research, which we regard as a form of censorship.”

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