[SANET-MG] EPA rules people may be laboratory mice

[jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>]

US rules for testing pesticides on people
17 September 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
SHOULD people ever be deliberately exposed to pesticides to discover how 
toxic they are? Many campaigners say no, but rules announced by the US 
Environmental Protection Agency on 7 September only ban children and 
pregnant women from being used as subjects in studies conducted by or 
for the EPA.

The new rules commit the EPA to setting up ethical guidelines for other 
studies on human subjects. But it might still accept studies that do not 
follow the ethical guidelines if they are conducted by third parties and 
were not intended to be used by the EPA. Some pesticide manufacturers 
have conducted studies that have deliberately exposed people to their 
products, and submitted them to the EPA to use in setting limits on 
environmental pesticide levels. Under the Clinton administration, the 
EPA stopped accepting the studies. But the industry sued, and in 2003 a 
federal court ruled that the EPA had to use the studies until it drew up 
official regulations.

"We've described it as a bold half-step forward," says Jeff Ruch, 
executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, 
which has campaigned for additional protection for people paid to take 
part in the studies, to ensure that the poor are not being exploited.

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