Testing Pesticides on Babies, EPA Forced to Stop

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/040905Z.shtml

 

Testing Pesticides on Babies, EPA Forced to Stop

 

EPA Halts Florida Test on Pesticides

By David D. Kirkpatrick

The New York Times

 

Saturday 09 April 2005

 

Washington - Stephen L. Johnson, the acting administrator of the

Environmental Protection Agency, said on Friday that he was canceling

a study of the effects of pesticides on infants and babies, a day

after two Democratic senators said they would block his confirmation

if the research continued.

 

Rich Hood, a spokesman for the agency, acknowledged that Mr.

Johnson had canceled the test because of the objections to his

confirmation. " They are pretty juxtaposed in time, aren't they? " Mr.

Hood said. " There is clearly a connection. "

 

But Mr. Hood said the opposition was not the only reason for the

cancellation.

 

" Mr. Johnson said in a meeting this morning that, his confirmation

aside, he had come to pose serious questions as to whether or not this

study was the appropriate thing to do, " he said.

 

A recruiting flier for the program, called the Children's

Environmental Exposure Research Study, or Cheers, offered $970, a free

camcorder, a bib and a T-shirt to parents whose infants or babies were

exposed to pesticides if the parents completed the two-year study. The

requirements for participation were living in Duval County, Fla.,

having a baby under 3 months old or 9 to 12 months old, and " spraying

pesticides inside your home routinely. "

 

The study was being paid for in part by the American Chemistry

Council, a trade group that includes pesticide makers.

 

In an interview on Friday, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, one of

two Democrats who said they would block the confirmation, said the

study amounted to " using infants in my state as guinea pigs. "

 

Mr. Nelson said the study sought to recruit subjects in a poor

neighborhood by offering parents compensation for practices

potentially dangerous to their children.

 

" If you knew smoking caused cancer, " he said, " would you want to

have a study that said, 'Don't do anything, just keep smoking like you

are smoking and we are going to pay you and give you a camcorder so

that you can record all this'? "

 

Financing from the American Chemistry Council added a dangerous

potential conflict of interest, Mr. Nelson said.

 

In a statement explaining the cancellation, Mr. Johnson said he

first halted the study last fall " in light of questions about the

study design " to conduct an independent review.

 

But he attributed the cancellation mainly to mischaracterizations

of the study. Some Democratic critics have portrayed it as

deliberately spraying infants with pesticides.

 

" EPA senior scientists have briefed me on the impact these

misrepresentations have had on the ability to proceed with the study, "

Mr. Johnson said. " EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an

atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy. "

 

Mr. Johnson's confirmation was one of several stalemates in a

broader partisan battle over many of President Bush's nominees,

including 10 appeals court judges, his selection as commissioner of

food and drugs and his nomination of John R. Bolton, an under

secretary of state, as United States envoy to the United Nations.

 

Mr. Johnson's acquiescence, however, is unlikely to alter the

broader standoff. Senator Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee and the

Senate majority leader, has threatened that Republicans may change the

Senate procedures if Democrats continue to block nominees by refusing

the 60 votes needed to close debate on a confirmation. Dr. Frist

repeated to reporters this week that Senate Republicans would not

yield in their determination to see the president's judicial nominees

confirmed.

 

Under Senate rules, any senator can put a " hold " on a nominee or

proposal, and 60 votes are required to overturn it, making it similar

to a filibuster.

 

Mr. Nelson said that now that Mr. Johnson had canceled the program

he was prepared to withdraw his hold on Mr. Johnson's nomination and

vote for his confirmation. " I have heard only good things about him, "

Mr. Nelson said. " And I am looking forward to him being a breath of

fresh air to the EPA. "

 

A spokeswoman for Senator Barbara Boxer of California, the other

Democrat who put a hold on Mr. Johnson's confirmation, said that Ms.

Boxer would not block a vote on Mr. Johnson, a 25-year employee of the

environmental agency who is the first person with a science background

to be nominated to lead it, but that she had not decided how to vote

on his confirmation.

 

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