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wash off or biodegrade, 19,20 and is designed to be down in the stomach, a toxin is circulating within Thus, Bt-toxin
more toxic than the natural version. our blood stream that might further damage the
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A 2008 Italian government study found that cell walls it encounters. And in fetuses, which may indeed
Bt corn provoked profound immune responses in don’t have developed blood-brain barriers, this create small
mice. Monsanto’s own rat studies with Bt corn might result in damage to brain cells. holes in our
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also showed toxicity and immune responses. 23
Numerous reports, including medical investiga- UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES intestines.
tions and hospital records, show that thousands of The third way GMOs can cause harm stems
agricultural workers in India exposed to GM Bt from the fact that transgenic protein may be dif-
cotton varieties are reporting rashes and symp- ferent from the original and create unintended
toms that are similar to those experienced by the health hazards. In order for the inserted gene
five hundred people in the Pacific Northwest who to produce proteins, the piece of DNA is first
were exposed to Bt-spray. “transcribed” into RNA, and then “translated”
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to produce amino acid sequences, which are
Bt-TOXIN DAMAGES CELL WALLS only then folded into proteins. These proteins
Bt-toxin kills insects by creating small holes confer the desired traits in the GMOs. The inser-
(pores) in the cell walls of their digestive tracts, tion process, however, can cause mutations and
which in turn allow bacteria and other substances truncations in the genetic code of the inserted
to pass through. The U.S. Environmental Protec- transgene. Monsanto’s Mon 810 Bt corn, for
tion Agency (EPA), which labels Bt corn and Bt
cotton plants as registered pesticides, insists that
Bt-toxin will have absolutely no influence on hu-
man or mammalian cells. But research published
in the Journal of Applied Toxicology in 2012
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proves otherwise. Researchers “documented
that modified Bt toxins [from GM plants] are not
inert on human cells, but can exert toxicity.” In
high concentrations (generally higher than that
produced in average Bt corn), Bt-toxin disrupts
the membrane in just twenty-four hours, caus-
ing certain fluids to leak through the cell walls.
The authors specifically note, “This may be due
to pore formation like in insect cells.” Thus,
Bt-toxin may indeed create small holes in our
intestines.
Garry Gordon, MD, warns, “If [Bt-toxin] is
causing an increased propensity for our intestine
to become permeable or leaky and for foods to
be presented to our bloodstream in a premature
fashion, the havoc that it will cause will be across
the entire spectrum of disease, from premature
aging and Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s to autism
to cancer to asthma.”
The EPA had also claimed that Bt-toxin was
destroyed during digestion in humans. But a 2011
Canadian study conducted at Sherbrooke Hos-
pital discovered that 93 percent of the pregnant
women they tested had Bt-toxin in their blood.
And so too did 80 percent of their unborn fetus-
es. Thus, not only was the toxin not fully broken
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