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(32-05) Exploring exposure and effects terms in GMO risk analysis. Backhaus, Horst*,1, 1 Federal Research Agency for Agriculture and Forestry, Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, GERMANY ABSTRACT- Natural features of organisms and genes like dissemination, survival, replication, gene transfer and hybridization frequently are used as a surrogate measure of risk in GMO assessments. Such use of exposure terms may be suggested by a precautionary approach, regarding genetically modified organisms or their genetic modification as contaminants of the environment in general - due to their potential of secondary risk production. Then, a control of exposure and establishment gains high priority in risk management approaches. Without a critical assessment of the risk source characterization, the degree of management and monitoring of exposure remains positively correlated with risk perception. But the control of organism and gene fate is failure prone. A minimization strategy furthermore fundamentally conflicts with market competition, where the success of agricultural and environmental applications will determine the rate of establishment in poorly contained habitats. Method improvements for effects assessments, potentially characterizing GMOs as risk sources, represent an alternative challenge. Metabolic profiling of GMOs on one side and approaches defining microbial community diversity as a novel endpoint in ecotoxicology on the other, serve for some inferences: - An improvement in details and sensitivity of effects monitoring does not usually provide for a superficial interpretation in terms of impacts on protection objectives. - Also, an unequivocal correlation of data variation to the eventual risk source, i.e. the type of genetic transformation, the expression or movement of modified genes, becomes difficult if not impossible. A balanced reconstruction of a distorted framework for GMO assessment and monitoring is suggested together with a reassignment of ambitious objectives of improving prediction to basic science as their adequate playing ground. Key words: gene fate, evolution, effects endpoint, GMO assessment framework |
