A controversial French research paper suggesting that Roundup and Roundup Ready corn caused rats to develop tumours and die has officially been retracted.
Elsevier, a global publisher of scientific journals, announced Nov. 28 that the study by Gilles Seralini was based on a small data set and no “definitive conclusions” could be made from the research data.
“The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology retracts the article Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize, which was published in this journal in November 2012,” Elsevier said in a statement.
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“This retraction comes after a thorough and time-consuming analysis of the published article and the data it reports, along with an investigation into the peer-review behind the article.”
Seralini’s paper, which claimed a link between genetically modified food and cancer, generated headlines around the globe when it was published last year.
Seralini and his University of Caen colleagues gave rats water laced with Roundup and fed the lab animals a diet of Roundup Ready corn. Seralini concluded the rats developed more tumours and died two to three times more frequently than a control group of rats.
Biologists and toxicologists from around the globe immediately pounced on Seralini’s study, criticizing the methods, the data analysis and the conclusions.
As an example of the scientific outrage, six French academic societies issued a rare joint statement, condemning Seralini’s paper for irresponsibly spreading fear about GM food.
Numerous scientists said Seralini used a breed of rat that is prone to develop tumours, which could explain the high level of tumours detected in his experiments.
Wallace Hayes, editor in chief of Food and Chemical Toxicology, agreed with that assessment.
“Given the known high incidence of tumors in the Sprague-Dawley rat, normal variability cannot be excluded as the cause of the higher mortality and incidence observed in the treated groups.”
It is unusual for a journal to retract a published article, but Food and Chemical Toxicology said this was not a case of fraud.
Hayes asked Seralini for the study’s raw data, Seralini agreed and the editor reviewed the statistics.
Hayes determined that Seralini used too few rats in his research.
“A more in-depth look at the raw data revealed that no definitive conclusions can be reached with this small sample size regarding the role of either NK603 (a Roundup Ready corn variety) or glyphosate in regards to overall mortality or tumor incidence.”
GM Watch, which opposes biotechnology, said the retraction was “unscientific and unethical.”
The organization said in a statement that it’s highly irregular to retract a study because it is inconclusive.
“Hayes’ decision will tarnish the reputation of FCT (Food and Chemical Toxicology) and will increase public mistrust of science in general and genetically modified foods in particular,” GM Watch said.
