Dear John,
Soon our wild places and communities could be overrun with millions of experimental GMO mosquitoes.
GMO mosquitoes pose risks to human health and could disrupt fragile ecosystems in unpredictable ways.
Trump’s EPA is considering allowing the release of millions of GMO mosquitoes in Florida and Texas. The EPA could stop this dangerous experiment, but it’s ignoring scientists’ warnings about likely impacts on our health and environment, and is keeping the public in the dark about the details. We need your help to stop this reckless experiment, John!
Take action now: Tell the EPA to keep GMO mosquitoes out of our environment!
The genetic engineering corporation that created GMO mosquitoes -- Oxitec -- is a subsidiary of Intrexon, the same company that owns GMO apples and is a major investor in GMO salmon. The company wants us to believe these mosquitoes will help reduce the spread of diseases like zika and dengue by reducing mosquito populations, but the data shows that they don’t reduce population sizes. In fact, new research shows that in some places where GMO mosquitoes were released, the mosquito populations actually increased.
The Center for Disease Control even noted that Oxitec’s trials are not set up to test for disease reduction -- making them totally pointless!
Moreover, scientists have found that GMO mosquitoes can breed with wild mosquitoes, creating hybrid mosquitoes that may spread more viruses and be more resistant to insecticides. In other words, GMO mosquitoes could make public health problems even worse.
Trump’s EPA wants the American public to take Oxitec’s word that their GMO insects are safe, without any independent assessment. The EPA must protect us from the potentially devastating threats GMO mosquitoes pose -- especially when there hasn’t even been adequate research.
Keep untested GMO mosquitoes out of our environment: Tell the EPA to protect people and the planet, not industry profits!
Once millions of these mosquitoes are released into the environment, they cannot be “recalled.” And despite Oxitec’s claims that its GMO mosquitoes could help end devastating diseases, there is not a clear case to demonstrate this outcome.
Oxitec doesn’t want you to know that there are promising and less costly alternatives to addressing mosquito-borne diseases with far fewer risks. It just wants to secure public dollars for its potentially disastrous experiment .
Our environment and our communities should not be a testing ground for risky new GMOs. We shouldn’t wait until after GMO mosquitoes are released to figure out the risks. With your help, John, we can stop these experimental mosquitoes before they are released from labs into our environment.
Tell the EPA: Don’t bend to pressure from Oxitec! Stop the experiment and say NO to releasing GMO mosquitoes!
Standing with you,
Dana Perls
Senior food and technology campaigner
Friends of the Earth, U.S
