Claim: GMO rice linked to leukemia outbreak

It seems to be within the text of the story, itself. The reference to the extant pollution. Hardly worthy of a "causal" connection to leukemia via any sort of 'GMO foods'.

Right.. but is the post supporting or refuting what's posted in the article? What's RF's specific claim based on that article? Does he think its bogus, does he think that GMO rice is causing the leukemia etc? Does he have any evidence for/against his position etc?
 
well specifically i'm wondering about the claim that GM rice was linked to leukemia. There are older 2013-ish articles that debunk the mechanism of gmo specifically BT toxin causing leukemia

http://www.biofortified.org/2013/05/leukemia/

but thats a general refutation casting doubt on the mechanism of action. I'm looking for one specific to that claim that a certain university in china experienced a leukemia epidemic. Its a new claim so its possible that a specific refutation will only come up later

so far the only objection I can say is that there seem to be no mainstream news reports from either chinese or western news agencies about this. All the reports come from fringe/conspiracy/anti gmo websites which gives one doubt as to whether the news is real or not
 
well specifically i'm wondering about the claim that GM rice was linked to leukemia. There are older 2013-ish articles that debunk the mechanism of gmo specifically BT toxin causing leukemia

http://www.biofortified.org/2013/05/leukemia/

but thats a general refutation casting doubt on the mechanism of action. I'm looking for one specific to that claim that a certain university in china experienced a leukemia epidemic. Its a new claim so its possible that a specific refutation will only come up later

so far the only objection I can say is that there seem to be no mainstream news reports from either chinese or western news agencies about this. All the reports come from fringe/conspiracy/anti gmo websites which gives one doubt as to whether the news is real or not

Do you know which University affected by the "outbreak?"
 
Here's the claim -

Source: blog.sina.com.cn By Chen I-wan

Students of the university reveal: "Over 10 students suffered leukemia within 4 years", "According to what I learnt during the three years at the university, there was at least 8 students suffering leukemia had to leave school", they listed the names of at least 7 cases.

The students also revealed: "When we entered the university, the school required all students have the responsibility and duty to promote GM", "Upon entering the university, our teacher told us that the rice used by our canteen is GM rice from the university'sexperimental base.

It is learnt that the normal incidence rate of leukemia among young people in China is about 2 - 3 cases/100,000 people, and acute cases is about 0.6 - 1.6 cases/100,000 people. The leukemia incidence rate of the students at the Huazhong University is about three times the normal incidence rate.

"Hematotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis as spore-crystal strains Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, or Cry2Aa in Swiss albino mice", astudy by Brazilian researchers, prove thatBt toxins are toxic to the blood of mice and causesred blood cells to rupture.

Advisor Chen I-wan on his blog called that the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) should jointly organize a working team to enter the Huazhong University and investigate if Zhang Qi-fa influenced the university to feed GM Bt rice to the students on regular basis, and if the fact thatleukemia incidence rate of the students at the Huazhong University is about three times the normal incidence rate? And, if this is basically verified, then should sue those responsible withpublic prosecution alleged "to endangering public security by dangerous means"!
Content from External Source
 
Here's the claim -

Source: blog.sina.com.cn By Chen I-wan

Students of the university reveal: "Over 10 students suffered leukemia within 4 years", "According to what I learnt during the three years at the university, there was at least 8 students suffering leukemia had to leave school", they listed the names of at least 7 cases.

The students also revealed: "When we entered the university, the school required all students have the responsibility and duty to promote GM", "Upon entering the university, our teacher told us that the rice used by our canteen is GM rice from the university'sexperimental base.

It is learnt that the normal incidence rate of leukemia among young people in China is about 2 - 3 cases/100,000 people, and acute cases is about 0.6 - 1.6 cases/100,000 people. The leukemia incidence rate of the students at the Huazhong University is about three times the normal incidence rate.

"Hematotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis as spore-crystal strains Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, Cry1Ac, or Cry2Aa in Swiss albino mice", astudy by Brazilian researchers, prove thatBt toxins are toxic to the blood of mice and causesred blood cells to rupture.

Advisor Chen I-wan on his blog called that the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) should jointly organize a working team to enter the Huazhong University and investigate if Zhang Qi-fa influenced the university to feed GM Bt rice to the students on regular basis, and if the fact thatleukemia incidence rate of the students at the Huazhong University is about three times the normal incidence rate? And, if this is basically verified, then should sue those responsible withpublic prosecution alleged "to endangering public security by dangerous means"!
Content from External Source
it is a blog so there is doubt as to its authenticity
 
I've found this article at Kevin Folta's blog:
http://kfolta.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/gmo-leukemia-outbreak-in-china.html?m=1

It might not be the roundest of debunks, but seeing as every other instance simply was an anti GMO site repeating the same claims almost word for word, it seems reasonable, even showing an email from a friend supposedly at the University stating that "The information is not accurate" and that they know nothing of the claims.
okay its a start
 
There doesn't seem to be much reliable information about this particular story as of yet. As far as GMO's and leukemia goes, the idea is not new. There has not, however, been any evidence to suggest that there is a real link between the two. Myles Power gives a good rundown of it. He may come off as rude at times, but the experiments that attempt to back these anti-GMO ideas are often genuinely poorly designed and his information is scientifically sound.

http://mylespower.co.uk/2013/07/18/...cry1ab-cry1ac-or-cry2aa-in-swiss-albino-mice/

The Bt delta endotoxins have been extensively investigated and are considered to be more selective and safer for humans and non target organisms than most conventional insecticides. This is because they target sites that are only found in a few groups of insects. The Bt delta endotoxin is a highly selective pore-forming toxin that binds to the gut epithelium of the insect, causing cell lysis by the formation of cation-selective channels. This leads to death from septicaemia, as normal gut bacteria invade the body cavity. Even though the toxin is so specific, some people seem to be under the impression that what kills one organism will kill another, but we all know this not to be true, otherwise we would not take penicillin to kill a bacterial infection, and we would have no problem feeding chocolate to our dogs. The Bt delta endotoxins are so non-toxic to mammals that when mice where fed 3,289mg/kg of one of them (CryIAb delta endotoxin) in a single dose, no adverse effects were recorded. To put that in context, that would be the equivalent of the average British man (who weights 84kg) eating 276.3g of the purified toxin and having no adverse effects.
Content from External Source
 
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