Inhaled Bt corn pollen may trigger disease in humans and animals.

Virtually an entire Filipino village of about 100 people living adjacent to a large field of Bt corn were stricken by a disease. The symptoms, which appeared at the time the corn was producing pollen, included headaches, dizziness, extreme stomach pain, vomiting, chest pains, fever, and allergies, as well as respiratory, intestinal, and skin reactions.

“There was this really pungent smell that got into our throats,” said resident Mary Jane Malayon. “It was like we were breathing in pesticides.” (Ibid) She and her extended family all became ill, and “within days, people living a little further away….where experiencing similar symptoms.” (Ibid)

When her family moved out to stay with relatives, their symptoms abated within a week, but the person who rented their house became ill. At least three other families found that their symptoms disappeared when they moved away and appeared again upon returning. Such a response points to an environmental toxin or allergen, rather than an infectious disease.

Mae-wan Ho, director of the Institute for Science in Society, interviews many of the Filipinos in 2006. She reports: “As part of an investigation to determine what made the villagers ill, one of the farmers was ‘volunteered’ to venture inside the Bt maize (corn) field in the presence of more than 10 witnesses, as he explained to me via an interpreter. ‘Within five minutes, I could not breathe and felt something extraordinary on my face,’ he recalled. The others could see that his face had swollen up and remarked that it was ‘very dangerous.’ In fact, the farmer is ill to this day. Every now and again, he feels weak in his limbs and numb in his hands and feet. He held up the back of his right hand to show me the index finger. A yellowish-brown discoloration and thickening of the fingernail had developed since he was exposed too the GM pollen…
“Many if not all the villagers exposed to GM-maize pollen in 2003 have remained ill to this day. Furthermore, there have been five unexplained deaths in the village. In total, 96 people got sick. In addition, nine horsed, four water buffalos, and 37 chickens died soon after feeding on GM maize. (Mae-Wan Ho, “GM Ban long Overdue, Dozens Ill & Five deaths in Philippines,” ISIS Press Release, 02JUN06.)

Terje Traavik, Director of the Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology, learned about the incident during the fall od 2003 and arranged for blood samples from 39 individuals to be taken in October. In all cases, IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies were detected in response to Bt-toxin. The IgA and IgM reactions indicate recent exposure to Bt within the previous three months and are consistent with an interpretation that the disease might have been created by inhalation of the Bt-pollen from the field.

Symptoms reappeared with the same corn

The corn was a hybrid between Mon 810, a BT crop from Monsanto, and the conventional Dekalb 818 variety. It was first introduced to the region in 2003. Although it was not replanted in the stricken village in 2004, other regions on the same island of Mindanao did use the corn variety. Similar reactions where reported in at least four villages, all occurring hen the corn was shedding pollen.


In South Sepaka, 31 people said that they fell ill while the corn was pollinating, and in an elementary school in Magallon, approximately 20 children (aged 5-10 years) developed coughs, sneezing, asthma, and breathing difficulties. (Ibid) “Thirty-two people in Tunka,” according to Ho, “suffered from headache, stomach-ache, dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting and difficulty in breathing,”(Ibid) An advocacy officer for Mindanao, where the villagers were located, also reported that people experienced” when “the first case of alleged harmful effects of the flowering Bt corn was documented.” ( Allen V. Estabillo, “Farmer’s Group Urged Ban on Planting Bt Corn; Says It Could Be Causes of Illnesses,” Mindanews) Before they got sick most residents had not known that the planted corn was Bt.

When Traavik’s team conducted blood tests in 2003, they also tested how much Bt_toxin (Cry2AB) was being produced by the corn. The study, which is not yet published, showed that the levels varied considerably in the kernels, even from the same plant. The levels ranged from 0,014 ug to 0.9 ug, with other kernels expressing levels of both above and below the limits of detection for the test. This raises questions about the stability of the transgene or its expression. It is possible that the particular corn variety had been altered in some whay only in that area, which may explain why similar results were not reported elsewhere.

The potential dangers of breathing GM Pollen had been identified years earlier by the UK Joint Food Safety and Standards Group. In a letter to the US FDA in 1998, they had even warned that genes from inhaled pollen might transfer into the DNA of bacteria that reside in the respiratory system. (N. Tomlinson of UF MAFF’s Joint Food Safety and Standards Group 04DEC98 letter to the US FDA commenting on its draft document, “Guidance for Industry: Use of Antibiotic Resistance marker Genes in Transgenic Plants,” http://www.food,gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/acnfp1998.pdf)

When the reports surfaced about the sickness in the Philippines, advocates for GM crops were quick to dismiss them. There was not, however, been a thorough investigation and very little research has been done to follow-u[ on this significant red flag.

This information taken from Genetic Roulette by: Jeffrey M. Smith page-35.
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