http://www.gpus.org/press/pr_2004_12_09.html
December
9, 2004
Press Release
from the Green Party
Greens
Blast New EPA Deregulation of Pesticide Tests on Humans.
Chemical corporations are seeking approval for toxic experiments
on low-income Americans, say Greens.
WASHINGTON,
D.C. -- Green Party leaders strongly criticized an announcement
from the Environmental Protection Agency that it would allow experiments
using human subjects to test the safety of pesticides without
government oversight.
According
to a November 30 EPA announcement, the agency will not establish
rules to prevent unethical experimentation, but will handle "ethically
problematic studies on a case-by-case basis."
"The
lack of oversight on the testing of pesticides on human subjects
will open door to all kinds of abuses," said Gray Newman,
Soil & Water District Commissioner in Mecklenburg, North Carolina
and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "The
new policy gives EPA bureaucrats no guidelines for judging what
constitutes 'ethical concerns.' Investigation of abuses will be
arbitrary and subject to the political loyalties of EPA appointees
and the influence of pesticide lobbies."
Greens noted
that the news of the EPA's policy coincides with reports that
rat poisoning rates in children have tripled since 2001, when
the Bush Administration worked a backroom deal with chemical lobbies
to weaken rat poison regulations designed to protect children,
according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers
(Los Angeles Times, Nov. 13, 2004, <http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/ratpoison111704.cfm>).
"The
drastic increase in rat poisoning cases involving children shows
us what pesticide companies are capable of in the absence of oversight,"
said
Jody Grage
Haug, co-chair of the Green Party. "The EPA initially green-lighted
an industry-funded project in Jacksonville, Florida, in which
parents will be paid to use neurologically harmful pesticides
and record their children's reactions to the chemicals on camera.
Since many or most of the families who will sign up for the experiment
are likely to be low-income, the so-called Children's Environmental
Exposure Research Study ['CHEERS'] amounts to a plan to poison
poor kids."
The
EPA received $2.1 million to fund the CHEERS study from the American
Chemistry Council, which includes Dow, Exxon, Monsanto, and other
corporations. The
study violates ethics standards by exposing the children to health
risks, exploiting the financial vulnerability of their families,
and permitting industries who have a vested interest in the outcome
to fund the study. CHEERS has been put on hold after a public
outcry, but has not been canceled.
"Bush
Administration and industry officials should be held criminally
responsible for harm done to children as a result of these policies,"
said Starlene Rankin, Lavender Green Caucus delegate to the national
party.
MORE INFORMATION:
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
