Peter William Edward Kearns

Re-Imagine Europa · Sustainable Agriculuture and Innovation

This is a newsletter on the activities of OECD related to biotechnology and the life sciences. It includes references/ links to a number of recent OECD publications.

The increasingly widespread use of genome editing brought with it a fierce debate about the most adequate regulation of this latest innovation in modern biotechnology and the products resulting from it. In almost all cases, this debate has become a repetition or continuation of the deliberations concerning genetically modified organisms (GMOs) of t...

This item, Biotechnology Update, provides up-to-date information on activities related to biotechnology and the life sciences more generally at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is mainly intended for OECD staff and delegates to OECD meetings who are already familiar with certain aspects of the Organisation’s wor...

This Revised OECD Consensus Document on the Biology of Rice (Oryza sativa. L) has recently completed the declassification process; that is, it has been reviewed by OECD member countries as well as partner countries. It is published as No. 70 in the Series on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology. This consensus document is a re...

This report arises from the work of the Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation which was established by Re-Imagine Europa (RIE) in 2020. The Task Force consists of more than 70 experts from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. On the 29th of April, the European Commission published a study on new genomic techniques in which th...

This report arises from the work of the Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation which was established by Re-Imagine Europa (RIE) in 2020. The Task Force consists of more than 70 experts from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines. On the 29th of April, the European Commission published a study on new genomic techniques in which th...

OECD Series on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology. This document contains information provided by delegations participating at the annual meeting of OECD's Working Party on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (March 2021). The information provided by national delegations includes national developments on...

OECD Series on the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds. This document contains information provided by national delegations participating in the annual meeting of OECD's Working Party on the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds. (March 2021). The information provided by national delegations includes national developments on food/ feed safety issues mainly...

The OECD Council Recommendation on Recombinant DNA Safety Considerations is a legal instrument which has been in force since 1986. It outlines the safety assessment practices that countries should have in place for agricultural and environmental biotechnology. This article suggests possible updates to make it suitable for the modern era.

In a ruling on 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that organisms obtained by means of techniques/methods of mutagenesis constitute GMOs in the sense of Directive 2001/18, and that organisms obtained by means of techniques/methods of directed mutagenesis are not excluded from the scope of the Directive. Following the...

This document is from the OECD series on the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds. These documents contain elements for use during the regulatory assessment of a particular food/feed product such as those derived from transgenic organisms. They compile information and data on the nutrients, anti-nutrients and toxicants of the product, its use as a food...

This item in the form of a newsletter. It is an update of OECD activities related biotechnology and the life sciences more generally. It describes recent OECD publications as well as the outcomes of recent meetings with links to additional information. It also shows upcoming publications and OECD events.

This newsletter, Biotechnology Update, provides up-to-date information on activities related to biotechnology or the life sciences more generally at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is mainly intended for OECD staff and delegates to OECD meetings who are already familiar with certain aspects of the Organisation’...

Dryland oilseed crop traditionally used for food and textile dyes, SAFFLOWER is now mostly cultivated for oil production. This consensus document provides science-based key insights for the regulatory assessment of the environmental safety of safflower genetically-engineered varieties: taxonomy, centres of origin, cultivation, reproductive biology,...

This document compiles information provided by delegations on the occasion of the 27th meeting of OECD's Working Group on the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds (23-24 March 2020). It aims at summarising relevant information on activities related to the safety assessment of novel foods and feeds since the previous meeting (April 2019) at the internati...

The consensus documents prepared by the OECD Working Group on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (WG-HROB) contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of the environmental safety (or ‘biosafety’) of a particular product. In the area of plants, these are being published on information on the biology of certai...

In a ruling on 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded that organisms obtained by means of techniques/methods of mutagenesis constitute GMOs in the sense of Directive 2001/18, and that organisms obtained by means of techniques/methods of directed mutagenesis are not excluded from the scope of the Directive. Following the...

This Newsletter is issued by the OECD Internal Co-ordination Group for Biotechnology (ICGB), and edited by the biosafety team. It provides up-to-date information on OECD activities related to biotechnology in several Directorates (Environment; Science, Technology and Industry; Trade and Agriculture) and the International Energy Agency/Renewable Ene...

This OECD Consensus Document on the Biology of APPLE (Malus domestica Borkh.) has recently been published. It is also available on the OECD BioTrack public website. Apple is a major fruit crop of temperate regions. It is traded and consumed worldwide as fresh fruit, juice and many other food products. The primary purpose of such a document is for u...

Since commercial use of genetically-engineered (genetically-modified) plants started in 1996, many agricultural products have been developed to improve crop traits. The foods and feeds derived from these commodities have drastically increased worldwide. However, answering health and environmental safety concerns associated with the agricultural use...

The “OECD Conference on Genome Editing: Applications in Agriculture—Implications for Health, Environment and Regulation” was held on the 28–29 June 2018 at the OECD headquarter and conference centre in Paris, France. It brought together policy makers, academia, innovators and other stakeholders involved in the topic, in order to take stock of the c...

A major fruit crop of temperate regions, apple is traded and consumed worldwide as fresh fruit, juice and many other food products. In addition, leftovers from apple processing are fed to livestock. Given the importance of the crop, this publication should be of particular interest to food and feed safety assessors as well as other reader especiall...

The “OECD Conference on Genome Editing: Applications in Agriculture – Implications for Health, Environment and Regulation”, brought together policy makers, academia, innovators and other stakeholders involved in the topic, in order to take stock of the existing research and applications of genome editing, and to thereby provide science-based input...

The international Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development (OECD) conference on genome editing (June 2018) provided a timely platform for scientists, risk assessors, policy-makers, and regulators to discuss the applications and implications of this technology in various agriculture areas and the related policy considerations; in addit...

This report demonstrates how the Recommendation on the Safety Testing and Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials, adopted by the OECD Council in 2013, has been implemented by Adherents thus far. Amongst other things, the Recommendation shows how the safety testing and assessment of nanomaterials has been aligned with measures for the safety testi...

The OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) provides a global forum for discussion of nano-safety issues. Together with the OECD Test Guidelines Programme (TGP) the WPMN has explored the need for adaptation of some of the existing OECD Test Guidelines (TGs) and Guidance Documents (GDs) as well as developing new TGs and GDs to specif...

In vitro air–liquid interface (ALI) cell culture models can potentially be used to assess inhalation toxicology endpoints and are usually considered, in terms of relevancy, between classic (i.e., submerged) in vitro models and animal-based models. In some situations that need to be clearly defined, ALI methods may represent a complement or an alter...

Development and market introduction of new nanomaterials trigger the need for an adequate risk assessment of such products alongside suitable risk communication measures. Current application of classical and new nanomaterials is analyzed in context of regulatory requirements and standardization for chemicals, food and consumer products. The challen...

Identifying and characterising nanomaterials require additional information on physico-chemical properties and test methods, compared to chemicals in general. Furthermore, regulatory decisions for chemicals are usually based upon certain toxicological properties, and these effects may not be equivalent to those for nanomaterials. However, regulator...

Bringing together the ideas of experts from around the world, this incisive text offers cutting-edge perspectives on the risk analysis and governance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), supporting effective and informed decision-making in developing countries. Comprised of four comprehensive sections, this book covers: integrated risk analysi...

A Note on the Recommendation of the OECD Council on the Safety Testing and Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials. An explanation of this legal instrument.

This presentation presents: the background to the work of OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials; some of the nano specific aspects related to grouping and read-across; together with the preliminary findings of an OECD workshop on the topic held 13-14 April 2016.

This paper charts the almost ten years of history of OECD's work on nanosafety, during which the programme of the OECD on the Testing and Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials covered the testing of eleven nanomaterials for about 59 end-points addressing physical-chemical properties, mammalian and environmental toxicity, environmental fate and m...

This presentation describes the OECD Council recommendation on the safety of manufactured nanomaterials together with the implications for future work at OECD and in member countries.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) established a Chemical Accidents Programme in 1988. Over the years, there have been many publications and events resulting from this programme which have addressed various aspects of major chemical accidents. This summary identifies those which are especially noteworthy.

http://tinyurl.com/p3l57jq New nanomaterials offer promising avenues for future innovation, which can contribute towards the sustainability and resource efficiency of the tyre industry. Yet uncertainty over environmental health and safety (EHS) risks appears to be a main and continuous concern for the development of new nanomaterials in tyre produc...

Modern trade and agriculture is characterised by the increasing exchange worldwide of agricultural commodities, including seed. Many countries import and export significant quantities of seed for sowing, as well as grain and oilseed commodities that can function biologically as seed if released into the environment. A feature of modern agriculture...

Summary of the Conference ‘‘Science into Policy, improving uptake and adoption of research conference’’ 11th to 13th November 2013 in Brisbane, Australia, a conference sponsored by the OECD Co-operative Research Programme on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems.

This paper discusses how ‘science informs policy’ in the context of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), their potential environmental impact as well as regulations. It focuses, in particular, on how scientific information used in environmental risk assessment is shared amongst countries thus informing policy and decision-making. Risk/safety asse...

This paper presents the activities and publications of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD's) Working Group on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology and the Task Force for the Safety of Novel Foods and Feeds. The main outputs of the work are the Series of "consensus documents" of the respective groups. The...

There is a growing literature on the use of science to inform decisions on the environmental, health and safety implications of nanotechnology, but little has been published by those who make such decisions. Here, as officials of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel...

The OECD has been at the forefront of international efforts since 2005 to minimize the unintended risks that are associated with the use of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology refers to a range of technologies that aim to manipulate individual atoms and molecules in order to create new products and processes. Most nano-materials are probably perfectly s...

As the world has changed during the past 50 years, so has agriculture. And so has agricultural research, which continues to confront new challenges, from food security to ecological concerns to land use issues. Indeed, as Guy Paillotin, the former president of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) has noted, agricultural re...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization, is playing a critical global role in ensuring that emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, are developed responsibly. This article describes OECD activities around occupational safety and health of nanotechnology and provides state-of-the-sci...

Abstract. This paper introduces the work of OECD ' s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. In particular, it describes its “sponsorship programme” through which OECD member countries and other stakeholders are collaborating to fund and manage the safety testing of 14 manufactured nanomaterials. The paper describes the endpoints which will be...

Les nanotechnologies constituent des champs disciplinaires convergents et émergents avec des applications potentielles très prometteuses et d'ores et déjà significatives. Parmi ces innovations, les nanomatériaux manufacturés seront probablement amenés à jouer un rôle majeur dans les années à venir en raison de leurs propriétés physicochimiques exce...

These OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents identify elements of scientific information used in the environmental safety and risk assessment of transgenic organisms which are common to OECD member countries. This is intended to encourage information sharing and prevent duplication of effort among countries. This book offers ready access to those conse...

This paper identifies some of the main milestones in the development of the concept of substantial equivalence as a decision tool since the early 1990s. Most of these milestones have involved intergovernmental meetings or workshops, which have taken place during the last ten years or so. During this period, the concept has evolved and has been refi...

The Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) was established in 1995 as a mechanism to co-ordinate the efforts of Inter-governmental Organisations in promoting the sound management of chemicals. The seven participating organisations are the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Labour Organi...

In some populations of the two-spot ladybird, Adalia bipunctata, there is evidence that melanics of both sexes have a general mating advantage over the typical morph. There is also evidence that some female ladybirds possess a simple mating preference for melanic males. We have determined the influence of body weight on mating success in the two-sp...

Tests for non-random mating in laboratory stocks of Adalia bipunctata showed that female two-spot ladybirds from ‘isofemale lines’, which had formerly mated preferentially with melanic males, now mated at random. In an attempt to obtain new stocks in which females mated preferentially, we isolated ‘isofemale lines’ from a natural population at Keel...

There is contradictory evidence concerning non-random mating among melanic and non-melanic phenotypes of Adalia bipunctata. Although most studies have found a mating advantage in favour of melanic individuals, one found random mating. Furthermore, in some samples the melanic mating advantage was frequency-dependent though not in others. In one popu...

Ladybirds are popular insects with children. As a result, they have considerable potential as teaching aids for a range of biological subjects. They are particularly amenable for studying topics such as insect life cycles, genetics, population biology, and behaviour, but the list of potential projects is almost endless. We give here details of the...

Ladybirds are popular insects with children. As a result, they have the potential to be useful as teaching aids for a range of biological subjects. One of the major drawbacks in the past has been the lack of information on the methods for obtaining ladybirds in the field and for caring for and breeding ladybirds in the laboratory. We here describe...

Fisher's theory of the evolution of sexual selection by female choice depends crucially on the premise that the preference of females to mate with males of a specific genotype is itself genetic1. In the polymorphic ladybird Adalia bipunctata, a genetically determined, non-assortative female preference for melanic males has been demonstrated2. Model...