Online
at EWG's site: http://www.ewg.org/issues/humantesting/20041029/index.php
PRESS RELEASE
October 29, 2004
Contact: Jon Corsiglia, Lauren Sucher -- 202-667-6982
Group Demands
Halt to Unethical, Scientifically Questionable Study in Which
EPA and Chemical Industry Pay Families to Expose Children to Pesticides
(Washington,
Oct. 29) — An Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigation
into a controversial pesticide study found that the chemical industry's
lobbying arm, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), boasted to
its members that a $2 million contribution it made to the study
had gained the industry "considerable leverage" over
the project. (http://www.uslri.org/news.cfm?id=newsletters Fall
2004 pg. 9). The claim severely undermines the EPA's assertion
that the money comes with "no strings attached."
The study,
in which 60 families are paid $970 plus a t-shirt and a bib to
expose their children to pesticides through normal home applications,
will undoubtedly lure poorer families to participate and may even
encourage them to apply pesticide in their homes that they would
not normally use. Participants who see the study through to the
end get to keep the video camera.
By accepting
$2 million from the chemical lobby, EPA has granted the industry
it should be regulating special advance access to study results
that the public and independent scientists will not have.
"Which
is more disturbing — a government study that pays people
to expose their children to pesticides, or the EPA selling its
science for $2 million?" asked EWG vice president for research
Jane Houlihan.
Today, EWG
president Ken Cook wrote to EPA Assistant Administrator Paul Gilman,
"[l]et us be clear: it's an extremely bad idea to pay people
to expose their children to dangerous pesticides, while giving
the regulated industry 'leverage' by accepting its money to do
this.
You should
stop — today — this outrageous study, immediately
return the pesticide lobby's money, and start afresh on studying
the important question of chemicals' health effects on children.
Surely the $7,000,000 the Agency is putting into this study, or
$120,000 per child, could be redirected to projects that more
effectively advance public health protections — and the
health of study participants."
# # #
EWG's correspondence
with the EPA and the ACC document saying "considerable
leverage" are available on EWG's website, http://www.ewg.org.
EWG is a
nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that
uses the power of information to protect human health and the
environment.
