Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment

Dear colleagues,
With regards to the time period to monitor the LMO released to the environment, presumably deliberate release ones, there is no hard and fast rule as to the time frame for monitoring.
By and large, it depends on the LMO itself, with specific reference to its life span in the wild, also its other propagative forms such as seed and spores etc which can endure years in the environment. These must be monitored as well. And surely it will involve monitor programs that last for years.
Not to forget the cost involved to monitor the LMO and its other propagative forms. Too frequent the monitoring increases the cost, otherwise it may amount to non-monitoring and allowing risk to go unchecked.
I suggest a general surveillance monitoring can be done frequently, in combination with a less frequent, case-specific monitoring.
The data obtained from each monitoring should be combined, in which the minister-in-charge or national centre on biosafety should compile these data for further and related monitoring. Sharing of these data at international level on a common platform, says on a particular webpage(s) will facilitate trans-national data sharing.

Sure enough, we are only looking at one perspective i.e. time-period of monitoring, there are more to be done. 

Regards,
Dr Kok-Gan Chan,
Senior Lecturer, ISB (Genetics & Molecular Biology)
Faculty of Science, University of Malaya

Monitoring should not be assumed to be necessary in all cases, but should be imposed if there is a clear need for such activity, based on a thorough risk assessment.    In the case of LMO's that have been determined to be safe enough to deploy into the environment (keeping in mind that the non-modified organism is the baseline comparator), there should be no need for monitoring.  In those cases where monitoring is necessary, there should be a clear formulation of the environmental variables that should be monitored, the endpoints to be measured, and their relationship to the protection goals of a country.