Potential effects on human health of the consumption of foods derived from biotechnology and of the release of GMOs (especially plants) in the environment are generally recognized as public concerns.

The risks to health associated to the consumption of foods derived from biotechnology have been addressed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint FAO/WHO body, which established in 1999 a Task Force (the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology) to deal with this issue.

Responses to the second concern have so far been very scarce: the traditional framework for risk assessment and management involves a methodological progression through a rigorous sequence of analytical steps that does not fit the type of phenomena involved in this case. In addition, Environmental Risk Assessment usually identifies direct and indirect environmental effects but makes limited references to human health. 

WHO/Europe organized this seminar with the aim of contributing to filling this gap. The category of hazards associated with the release of GMOs in the environment that were dealt with by the seminar participants, and for which human health effects should be identified or excluded, were restricted to 1) gene transfer; 2) alteration of ecosystem structure and function; and 3) development of resistances.