The Poison Control and Drug Information Center (PCDIC) at the university organized a scientific lecture regarding the benefits and risks of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The event was attended by Dr. Suliman Khaleel, Director of scientific centers; Dr. Ansam Sawalha, Director of PCDIC; Dr. Waleed Sweileh, Dean of the College of Pharmacy; Dr. Saed  Zyoud, Toxicology Information Specialist; members of the academic and administrative staff at the university; and a large number of guests and students.

In his talk about the scientific centers at the university, Dr. Khaleel emphasized the role that such centers play to serve the local community, especially what the PCDIC is doing in order to raise the awareness in the fields of health, research, medications, and published scientific articles.

During the lecture about GMO, Dr. Sawalha presented the advantages and disadvantages of such products and explained the source of confusion that is surrounding this technology. She mentioned that GMO’s could help solve many current problems related to food supply yet it can increase the risk of cancer, allergy, and other human diseases.

Given the constant debate surrounding GMO’s, the companies involved in such business constantly assures consumers that such products are safe. Unfortunately, no enough testing is being done to confirm such claims. Dr. Sawalha mentioned that there are still many questions awaiting answers in this topic such as: why are such items produced? Are GMO’s safe? Dr. Sawalha mentioned the advantages of GMO’s that include less maturation time, more disease/pest resistance, new products, higher yield, increased production of milk, meat, and eggs. She also warned that such technology could lead to the production of super weeds, loss of biodiversity, radical change in human diet and many others.

The importance of regulations with respect to GMO’s was emphasized by Dr. Zyoud, who presented the importance of such regulations in order to protect the consumers, prevent fraud, protect the environment, and many others. At the end, Dr. Sawalha presented some practical and scientific recommendations that are highly needed to get most of the benefit from GMO with the least amount of risk.