Chennai (PTI): Environmental group Greenpeace on Tuesday urged the Tamil Nadu Government to ban Genetically Modified (GM) food items in the state, saying they would adversely affect the health of the people and the state of agriculture.

Talking to newspersons here, Jai Krishna, Sustainable Agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace said the GM foods were scientifically acknowledged as health hazards and have been shown to cause, allergies, liver and kidney toxicity, immune disorders and retarded growth.

While pointing to a study conducted by Austrian Government recently that focussed on the impacts of GM corn on reproductive health, he said the study revealed that these GM crops cause infertility.

Dr Jayam Kanan, a fertility expert, opined infertility among young men and women was rising to alarming proportions.

"Reproductive toxicity is the most important reason for this. We are worried with the studies that are surfacing on the GM issue that seem to cause immune disorders, liver and kidney toxicity, growth disorders and increasing antibiotic resistance and now infertility itself," she added.

Dr Sujatha Byravan, Molecular biologist and former president of The Council for Responsible Genetics, claimed that there were few studies conducted on the impacts of GM.

"Few scientists, who reported adverse effects of GM have been silenced and their work discredited," she said adding India was following the same pattern of mistakes committed by the US in the regulation of GM foods.

The organisation also requested the government to act immediately to prevent the consumption of GM food in the state and stop all the GM field trials happening in the region till further scientific evidence proves they were safe.