Witness: Biotech corn caused reaction

ARLINGTON, Virginia (AP) -- Scientists considering whether a variety of biotech corn should be allowed into the food supply heard from a Florida optometrist that he's allergic to the grain despite a negative government blood test.

Keith Finger showed the panel pictures of welts and rashes he says he suffered Sunday after he ate a mixture of StarLink corn and water. He says he earlier had allergic reactions to tortilla chips that tested positive for the corn.

"The itching was horrible," Finger told the scientists Tuesday.

A member of the panel, Dean Metcalfe, an allergy specialist at the National Institutes of Health, said symptoms like Finger's would be sufficiently convincing for a doctor to order tests to tell whether he was allergic to the corn.

Finger is among 17 people whose blood the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested in the spring for sensitivity to a special protein in the corn. The tests were negative. Like Finger, all the 17 people had reported allergic reactions after eating corn products.

Some of the scientists questioned the effectiveness of the test and why the government had not sought out more potential victims by contacting doctors around the country. Federal officials said they lacked the money for wider-ranging tests.

Discovery of the corn in taco shells last fall led to nationwide recalls of corn products. The corn has been withdrawn from the market, but the crop's developer, Aventis CropScience, is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to allow a minimal amount in the food supply to avoid further recalls.

The scientific advisers are deciding whether the agency should set a maximum level for the corn of 20 parts per billion.
The scientists are not expected to issue their recommendation for a week.

A special protein in the corn, called Cry9C, breaks down slowly in the digestive system, an indication that it might induce allergic reactions. However, scientists say people would have to be exposed to the protein repeatedly to become sensitive to it.

StarLink is among several varieties of corn genetically engineered to produce their own pesticides. StarLink corn was supposed to have been grown and handled separately from other grain, but farmers often failed to do so.

The Agriculture Department reported Tuesday that it had accounted for all but 720,000 of the 128 million bushels of StarLink corn. Another 4.9 million bushels may have been mixed with grain that went to food processors.

Steve Gill, a USDA official, said most of the corn should have been caught in testing by processors and shippers.

In a report to the scientists, EPA says the actual levels of StarLink in U.S. corn supplies range from 0.34 to 8 parts