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

Dear  colleagues

Please, I would like to express Cuba´s opinion in relation to the topic Post-release monitoring and long-term effects of LMOs released into the environment.

Tacking into account the negative consequences that LMOs could have for the environment and human health, and bearing in mind also, the fact that the monitoring procedures play an important rol in the prevention of these effects,  the surveilliance and monitoring of these adverse effects are mandatory in the case of Cuba. This is stated in the national legislation on Biosafety.

Currently, We are working hard on the implementation of a monitoring system in Cuba. Although it is in a primary stage so far, this system is aimed at organizing, guiding and homogenizing the behaviour to be followed by the applicants for the biosafety authorizations, the specialist from the regulatory body and other stakeholders, regarding monitoring of the possible adverse effects of LMOs. This system will make easier the collection of data and the evaluation of the mechanisms applied to the specifics cases, in order to design more specifics monitoring systems based on previous experiences.

The surveillance and monitoring must be designed so as to allow the detection of the variability in the populations subjected to the monitoring, from incipient stages. These populations will depend on the LMO in question, the recipient environment and the identified adverse effects.  No matter how long the appearance of these effects take, the monitoring systems must be able to detect them at the earliest possible moment, in order to undertake the appropiated mitigation and elimination activities.

Sometimes these adverse effects result in irreversible damages become apparent in the long term. When this is the case,  the management of these consequences can be very expensive and to hard to handle.  that is the reason why the monitoring system is the responsible for the timely detection of the adverse effects. Sometimes and for some cases, these monitoring systems can be the same ones that are used permantly. These ones will detect only a little differents aspects in the population subjected to the monitoring, which will conduct to the need of more specifics tests to be undertaken in order to establish the cause-effect relationship with the LMO.

In the case of Cuba, for the adverse effect on human health, the current monitoring systems applied to the public health in a general sense, could be enough for dealing with LMOs which potentially affect the human health.

Best regards

Dra. Leticia Pastor Chirino.
National Centre for Biosafety. Cuba.