Headline: UK has new scare on genetic pollen spreading
 Wire Service: RTw (Reuters World Report)
 Date: Thu, Sep 30, 1999

 Copyright 1999 Reuters Ltd.  All rights reserved.
 
 (Updates with quotes from government adviser, context)

     By Christina Fincher
     LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Britain was embroiled in a new scare about
genetically modified crops on Thursday after the BBC said it had evidence
that GM pollen was escaping from British field trials into the wider
environment.
     But a government adviser, Alan Gray, said the amounts were small and
such a risk had been anticipated.

     "It isn't a surprise that small amounts of pollen occur at distances
from the crop," Gray, who sits on the government's Advisory Committee on
Releases to the Environment [ACRE], told BBC television on Thursday.

     BBC's Newsnight programme on Wednesday said it had found modified
genes in pollen samples collected up to 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles) from a
field of GM oilseed rape in the central England county of Oxfordshire.

     This was at least 20 times over a limit set by the Labour government
of just 200 metres (656 feet).

     But Gray said this was inevitable. "That's always been accepted that
very small amounts would go long distances."

     The government has come under heavy fire from the anti-GM lobby in
recent months after agreeing to limited test trials of GM crops to
determine whether the technology is safe.

     Prime Minister Tony Blair has had to balance the safety concerns of
consumers with a desire for Britain to remain at the cutting edge of GM
technology.

     Hundreds of anti-GM protestors took the debate to the ruling Labour's
annual conference in Bournemouth this week, urging the government to "say
no to GM."

     But Gray said the new findings revealed no danger.
     "Nobody is going to be harmed. The trials are about what the effect
might be on wildlife of using the herbicide that goes alongside this
herbicide-tolerant oil seed rape," he said.

     Friends of the Earth have said the study had very serious implications
for farmers trying to grow GM-free oilseed rape.

     But Environment Minister Michael Meacher has said the government had
always known a "vanishingly small percentage" of pollen grains would escape
beyond the limits. He acknowledged regulations might have to be revised.

     Pollen samples used in the Newsnight research were collected near a GM
field trial site at Watlington in Oxfordshire. Samples were taken from the
air at distances from the site of up to 475 metres (1,558 ft) and in
beehives up to 4.5 km (2.8 miles) away.

     Detailed DNA analysis by the Austrian Federal Environment Agency, one
of the few laboratories in Europe capable of doing the work, showed two of
the airborne samples and all six beehives tested positive for GM material,
the BBC said.

     It said the research showed it was practically impossible for farmers
within 4.5 km (2.8 miles) of a GM field to be sure their crops were GM
free.