http://www.indystar.com/articles/9/194606-2139-010.html
November 14,
2004
The Washington
Post
EPA halts study
of pesticides and kids
By Juliet
Eilperin
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency has suspended
a controversial study aimed at exploring how infants and toddlers
absorb pesticides and other household chemicals, officials said
this past week.
Several rank-and-file
EPA scientists had questioned the ethics of the two-year experiment,
which would have given the parents of 60 children in Duval, Fla.,
$970 apiece -- as well as a camcorder and children's clothing
-- in exchange for having their children participate. The critics
said low-income Floridians might continue to use pesticides, which
have been linked to neurological damage, in their homes to qualify
for the project.
Environmentalists
had criticized the study because the industry-funded American
Chemistry Council had agreed to pay $2 million of the project's
approximately $9 million cost.
EPA spokeswoman
Cynthia Bergman said officials had asked a group of independent
experts to re-examine the study's design, which has already been
reviewed by several independent panels of academics, officials
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and representatives
of the Duval County Health Department. The new panel is set to
give EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt its assessment this spring.
"Since
the study was announced last month, many have raised concerns,
including scientists within EPA. We want to be responsive to those
concerns," Bergman said.
But Jeff Ruch,
executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility,
said "EPA seems to think the problem with this study is one
of public relations, not mortality."
"Regardless
of the number of reviews, paying poor parents to dose their babies
with commercial poisons to measure their exposure is just plain
wrong," added Ruch.
