We (Ministry Of Natural Resources & Environment Malaysia ) refer to the article ' Why the rush to unleash GM mosquitoes on rakyat? ' ( Malaysiakini , Nov 8).

We appreciate the concerns raised by SM Mohamed Idris, President, Consumers' Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam Malaysia with regards to this issue.

The World Health Organisation only develops guidelines for field testing and release of GM insects, but it is up to Malaysia to adopt and adapt it in order to establish our own guidelines.

In fact the Ministry Of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia used the guidelines developed for GM Mosquito under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

We wish to inform that the approval process is not as simple as it is made out to be by some parties, as approval is given on a case by case basis and based on the merits of the application.

In the case of the GM mosquito application, the application went through a few reviews within the institution itself, i.e. the Research Review Committee, the Medical Research and Ethics Committee and the Institutional Biosafety Committee, before being submitted to the Department of Biosafety.

Within the Department of Biosafety itself, the application went through the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) (several rounds of consultations) before forwarding GMAC's recommendation to the National Biosafety Board (NBB).

This whole process itself has taken about five years before obtaining an approval from the NBB. This includes the laboratory and semi-field containment trials conducted.

A thorough scientific analysis on all aspects of safety is carried out by GMAC for every application received.

The Environmental Impact Statement by the United States Department of Agriculture on the release of insects carrying dominant lethal gene (RIDL), i.e. GM pink bollworm and GM fruit fly was also reviewed and taken into consideration as this RIDL technology is similar to that applied in the production of GM mosquitoes.

Through Risk Assessments, the USDA has proven that the release of GM organisms is safe to human and the environment when the release is conducted in a proper manner.

This is also in accordance with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which advocates the precautionary principle approach. This principle is the very basis of our Malaysian Biosafety Act 2007.

During the 30 days of public consultation period which was made known through public announcements in the newspapers, it was stated that the public may refer to the fact sheet available in the Biosafety website for further information regarding the application and that they can contact the Department of Biosafety for further enquiries.

This includes requests for access to the application dossier. In addition, the ministry has also written to nine NGOs including CAP, SAM and TWN and all their concerns were taken into consideration by GMAC and NBB.

All the important information regarding the application and the basis for which the decision was made, is available on the Biosafety website in order to make it accessible to the public.

With regards to the area where the field trial will be conducted, the NBB has made it a requirement for the applicant to obtain prior consent from the local residents of the area.

Malaysia is not the first country to release these GM mosquitoes.

The Mosquito Research and Control Unit of the Cayman Islands have already conducted an open field release for purpose of suppression, where else Malaysia is only conducting a limited field trial release with the objectives of studying the flight distance and longevity of the male GM mosquitoes compared to the wild type.

Other countries such as Singapore, Thailand and India, to name a few are also looking into this technology and are at various stages of the research.

The information obtained through this limited field trial is necessary before any decision can be made to proceed with subsequent trials which may eventually lead to a suppression trial.

Should the applicant decide to proceed to the next stage, a fresh application need to be submitted to NBB which will undergo the whole rigorous process of obtaining the approval again.

This is clear evidence that the Ministry is very concerned in protecting human health, the environment and biological diversity in this country.

In an effort by the Government to control the acute situation of deaths arising from dengue and in preventing the further spread of dengue, every practical method available must be looked into and evaluated accordingly.

Should the use of this new GM mosquito technology be proven successful, it may be incorporated into the current Integrated Pest Management programme to target the remaining Aedes mosquitoes that cannot be managed by the existing control methods.

For more information, please contact the Biosafety Department at [email protected]

Yamuna Perimalu is writing on behalf of the Corporate Communications Unit, Ministry Of Natural Resources & Environment Malaysia.