This seems relevant to the discussion of the risk and social aspects of disseminating nanotechnology into the environment:
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 23:28:29 -0500
From: srctran@world.std.com (Gregory Aharonian)
To: patent-news@world.std.com
Subject: PATNEWS: Book reviews: dangers of releasing modified organisms
!19961212 Book reviews: dangers of releasing modified organisms
I recently came across a patent application and journal article dealing with the one of the two major "skeletons" of the biotechnology industry: that of the unknown risk of releasing genetically modified organisms into the environment.
The PCT patent application is WO 96/34631, titled "Method for introducing and expressing genes in animal cells", with the following abstract: "A method for introducing and expressing genes in animal cells is disclosed comprising infecting said animal cells with live invasive bacteria, wherein said bacteria contain a eukaryotic casette encoding said gene. The gene may encode, e.g., a vaccine antigen, a therapeutic agent, and immunoregulatory agent or an anti-sense RNA or a catalytic RNA". In an era of superbugs, giving them more things to play with does not comfort me. They have had billions of years to practise playing with segments of genes.
The journal article is from the October 11th issue of Science, page 180, which is a very nice article titled "Could transgenic supercrops one day breed superweeds?". As of June 1996, 25 transgenic crops have received USDA regulatory approval. One experiment noted that in a population of wild strawberries growing within 50 meters of a strawberry field, more than 50% of the wild plants contained marker genes from the cultivated strawberries. There are many other effects of releasing transgenic seeds into cultivation, and while most agree that the short term consequences are benign, no one has a good idea of the long term consequences - studies are still incomplete.
In a sense, the problem is similar to that of nuclear wastes. The long term problems are still unresolved, while industry pressures the government to allow them to do something now. It helps then to have something to read.
Recently three books have come out that deal with the risks of releasing transgenic plants and animals. The books are articles written mostly by people from the academic world. The books are available from the International Center for Human and Public Affairs (ICHPA), located in the Netherlands. Their address is:
ICHPA
Pastoor Smitsstraat 25
5014 RH Tilburg
The Netherlands
Phone/fax: 31-13-5360751
Email: R.vonSchomberg@kub.nl
The first book is "Coping With Deliberate Release: The Limits Of Risk Assessment", edited by Ad van Dommelen, 256 pages, ISBN 90-802139-4-2, and costs 69 Dutch Guilders, with the following chapters:
The second book is "Contested Technology: Ethics, Risk and Public Debate", edited by Rene Von Schomberg, 265 pages, ISBN 90-802139-2-6 and costs 59 Dutch Guilders, with the following chapters:
The third book is "The Social Management of Biotechnology: Workshop Proceedings", edited by Peter Wheale, and costs 29 Dutch Guilders. The abstract is as follows: This volume of collected papers is designed to inform, stimulate and engage all those interested in the emerging biotechnological age. Topics covered in the text include the ethical questions raised by the creation of transgenic farm animals, the morality of genetic experimentation on animals, the controversy surrounding the patenting of genetic material and of the transgenic animals themselves, and the ethical implications of engineering transgenic animals for the sole purpose of transplanting their organs into humans (xenografting). Also considered are the environmental hazards, public policy issues, and the political implications of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering.
In October 1995 two dead rabbits were found on the mainland of Australia, not far from Wardang island where an experiment involving the release of a lethal rabbit virus was going on. It turned out the virus had left the containment of the island and reached the mainland, probably with the Australian bushfly acting as a vector of the virus (though other accounds suspect farmers of transporting infected rabbits, since with 200+ million wild rabbits in Australia, there are a lot of unhappy farmers). Two months later the death toll of rabbits on the mainland is an estimated 7 million, with the virus travelling as fast as 8 kilometers a day.
These issues are no longer theoretical.
Greg Aharonian
Internet Patent News Service
---End of forwarded mail from patent-news@europe.std.com