US EPA Accepts Unethical Human Pesticide Tests

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Mon, 27 Jun 2005 20:45:10 GMT

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PANUPS: US EPA Accepts Unethical Human Pesticide Tests

 

US EPA Accepts Unethical Human Pesticide Tests

 

 

June 27, 2005

 

A recent U.S. Congressional report reviewing pesticide studies

submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) raised

serious concerns about the intentional dosing of human subjects. The

report finds that in each of the 22 studies reviewed, there were

violations of ethical standards as set out by the National Academy of

Sciences (NAS), the Nuremberg Code and other professional medical and

scientific guidelines.

 

The report was issued by Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative

Henry Waxman and provides details of several human testing studies

accepted by the EPA that included testing of pesticides known to be

hazardous to human health and that failed to provide adequate

information in consent forms, dismissed some unfavorable results

and/or failed to provide long term monitoring of health effects. Most

of these studies were submitted by pesticide manufacturers and, in

contrast with pharmaceutical tests, often posed serious risks without

offering a potential health benefit to the human subject.

 

In one 2004 study at the University of California at San Diego, 127

young adults were exposed to the pesticide chloropicrin, a soil

fumigant used in chemical warfare during World War I. Some study

subjects were placed in a closed room filled with chloropicrin and

others had the pesticide shot up their nose and into their eyes, some

at levels many times the " permissible exposure " set by the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

 

Several studies were used to determine human " no observed effect

levels " or NOELs, a category of experiments that the NAS has called

unethical unless " there is a reasonable certainty that participants

will experience no adverse effects. " In a 1996 study of methyl

isothiocyanate (MITC, the primary breakdown product of metam sodium)

MITC was piped into special goggles worn by study subjects in order to

determine what levels would cause eye irritation. In another test,

subjects ingested a pill containing the pesticide aldicarb at a dose

that can cause levels of an essential nervous system enzyme called

cholinesterase to drop by as much as 70%.

 

A NAS report released in 2004 concluded that human pesticide tests

could be defensible if they were being used to test pesticides that

may prove to be less harmful to human health and the environment than

existing pesticides on the market. None of the 22 studies examined in

the Congressional report released last week fit this criterion, and

many involved older pesticides known to be highly toxic.

 

In an effort to put an immediate halt to these unethical and

unnecessary studies, a coalition of public interest groups headed by

the Center for Health Environment and Justice is supporting an

amendment to the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that

would place a one-year moratorium on human testing of pesticides. The

amendment was introduced in the House by Representatives Hilda Solis

(CA) and Timothy Bishop (NY) and will be carried in the Senate by

Senators Barbara Boxer (CA) and Bill Nelson (FL) and will be heard on

the Senate floor this week.

 

To sign a PANNA petition supporting the amendment against human testing:

 

http://ga4.org/campaign/moratorium

 

To see the full report, visit:

http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov/story.asp?ID=869

 

Sources: Human Pesticide Experiments, June 2005, Prepared for Senator

Barbara Boxer and Representative Henry A. Waxman, U.S. Congress; " EPA

Reviewing 24 Tests of Human Pesticide, " Washington Post, June 16,

2005; " California lawmakers want stop to human pesticide testing, "

San Diego Union Tribune , June 17, 2005.

 

Sources: PANNA, CHEJ, chej or http://www.chej.org.

 

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