BIOTECHNOLOGY
Global Civil Society: The Dire Consequences of Secretive Biotech Regulation
Independent Science News reports:
“The first Asilomar conference of 1975 has been both celebrated and condemned.
Whichever way you lean it was certainly a pivotal moment in the history of biotechnology.
Californian researchers working on GM microbes and GM viruses faced pushback for the first time on the potential hazards involved and gradually came to realise that their experiments might be dangerous and needed oversight. The critical question (for them) became: who would do the oversight? The public? The government? The scientists themselves?
So they met at Asilomar, California, partly to assess the dangers and partly to create a solution to their political problem.
Since the meeting was invitation-only and held behind closed doors the solution was a very self-serving one. They decided, in the absence of any meaningful critical presence, that only scientists needed to oversee their research. That solution became the model for all biotechnology oversight. It has led to uncontrolled and sometimes disastrous experiments, and to global genetic contamination by commercial products.
Today, in 2025, the dangers we face from synthetic biology, mirror life, RNA technology, gene editing, etc., are much greater. Starting on February 23rd, another but much bigger conference at Asilomar (Spirit of Asilomar and the future of Biotechnology, Feb 23rd-26th) will begin. It also proposes to guide biotech regulation. It too is a closed-door invitation-only event and this time too, judging by its funders, and its lead scientific organiser, the primary goal is not enhancing public safety but about hyping biotechnology.
The concern underlying the Global Civil Society Statement featured below is that this new Spirit of Asilomar conference will be used, under the false guise of open discussion, to give a green light to unfettered biotech research.
The intended use of this Civil Society Statement (which as of today has been signed by over 50 global NGOs), was to be read aloud to the meeting to alert attendees to the perennially-excluded perspective of Civil Society.”
Read the open statement from Civil Society addressing the ‘Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology’ conference
BAN TOXIC PFAS
States Move to Cement PFAS Protections Amid Fears of Federal Rollbacks
Shannon Kelleher reports for The New Lede:
“Concerns are growing about the fate of a Biden-era rule to limit toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water, with some states moving to introduce laws that would lock in place PFAS protections that could survive any potential rollback by the Trump Administration.
California introduced legislation on Wednesday that would direct the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt regulations at least as protective as those in the federal rule. If California’s bill passes, it will require state regulators to set new regulations by January 1, 2026 that would mirror the Biden Administration rule that set a limit on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water.
The legislation specifically calls for adopting the requirements in place on a federal level as of the day prior to President Donald Trump’s January 20th inauguration.
‘We think there’s a case here for folks to act with urgency given the developments in Washington, given the threat to public health and public safety that these chemicals pose,’ Assembly member Jesse Gabriel (D-CA), who introduced the bill, said on a February 19 press call. ‘We are going to do this so we can protect our communities irrespective of what happens at the federal level.’”
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TAKE ACTION: Tell Your State Legislators to Ban Toxic PFAS!