Early in 2000 the European Union rejected an application from Monsanto to sell GM cotton in Europe. It is possible that their rejection was due to strongly worded advice that GM cotton could lead to widespread human resistance to the main antibiotic used to treat gonorrhoea. This advice was received by the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food in February 1999 but only made public a year later.

The concern is that the 'aad gene' which confers resistance against both streptomycin (a second line antibiotic used for tuberculosis) and spectinomycin (the drug of choice for treating gonorrhoea already resistant to penicillin and third generation cephalosporins) is contained in both Bollgard (insect-protected) and Roundup Ready (herbicide-tolerant) GM cotton. The Neisseria gonorrhoea bacterium could acquire the 'aad gene' from GM cotton seed oil (used in processed foods) during infection of the mouth, the small or large intestine, or the respiratory tract. It could also acquire the 'aad gene' indirectly from other bacteria in the internal and external environments of animals and human beings, who themselves picked it up from GM cotton plant materials. Every part of the cotton plant is used. The 60% which is cotton seed is used to extract cotton seed oil for human foods, and cotton seed cake for animalfeed.

The GM cotton itself is used, of course, to make cotton, but the applications where it could pass resistance to gonorrhoea bacteria include sanitary towels, tampons, nappies, bandages and other wound dressings. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, a geneticist and biophysicist from the UK's Institute of Science in Society, condemned the UK Government for effectively suppressing this information for twelve months. It could have helped prevent the planting of millions of hectares of GM cotton world wide. She calls for the destruction of all GM cotton crops to protect our fast diminishing armoury of antibiotics.