Health concerns are leading Russia to restrict DNA based drugs
FOR Russians, 'genetic engineering' may soon become a medical Chechnya... to be done away with. Currently, the Russian government is debating over a draft law that would strictly regulate all genetic experiments, from basic research involving recombinant DNA to industrial efforts, in order to engineer transgenic plants and pollutant-eating microbes.
The government is responding to alarm bells sounded by the prominent environmental scientist Alexei Yablokov, chairman, Russian National Security Council's commission on ecological security. Yablokov ardently pleaded with the government, urging the authorities to put stringent checks on genetic engineering experiments, which he said were wreaking havoc on the health of Russians.
Such experiments do more harm to human bodies than even radioactivity, he maintained, claiming he had enough evidence to prove his charges. In 1979, an anthrax outbreak had killed 66 people in Sverdlvok. After prolonged investigation Russian and American scientists concluded last November that the outbreak was caused by a bacteria released from a Russian germ-warfare genetics laboratory.
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