Human Pesticide Test Data

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Updated: 12:43 AM EDT

Human Pesticide Test Data Used by EPA

Experiments Deliberately Exposed Subjects to Poisons

By JOHN HEILPRIN, AP

WASHINGTON (June 15) - Data from two dozen industry tests that

intentionally exposed people to poisons, including one involving a World

War I-era chemical warfare agent, are being used by the Environmental

Protection Agency in approving and denying specific pesticides.

The controversial data come from 24 human pesticide experiments submitted

to the EPA by companies seeking pesticide permits. The data, provided by

the EPA to congressional officials, is being studied under a policy the

Bush administration adopted last November to have political appointees

referee on a case-by-case basis any ethical disputes over human testing.

Aides to two California Democrats, Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Henry

Waxman, compiled and reviewed EPA data on 22 of the cases.

" Nearly one-third of the studies reviewed were specifically designed to

cause harm to the human test subjects or to put them t risk of harm, " the

aides concluded in a 38-page report and accompanying documents provided

Wednesday to The Associated Press.

The report said scientists conducting the experiments " failed to obtain

informed consent (and) dismissed adverse outcomes, " adding that the tests

" lacked scientific validity. "

One study in 2002-2004 by University of California-San Diego researchers

administered chloropicrin, a soil insecticide that during World War I was

a chemical warfare agent, to 127 young adults. Trade-name products for it

and mixtures of it - such as Timberfume, Tri-Con, Preplant Soil Fumigant

and Pic-Chor - must carry a " danger " warning label.

Most were college students and minorities who were paid $15 (12.43) an

hour to be put in a chamber or have the vapor shot into their nose and

eyes after signing consent forms warning they should anticipate " some

irritation in the nose, throat and eyes that could be sharp enough to

cause blinking and tearing. "

" Because you will be participating in an experiment, we must apprise you

that there may be some risks that are currently unforeseeable, " the

consent form read.

However, doses 120 times the hourly limit established by the Occupational

Safety and Health Administration were ingested by the test subjects,

according to the congressional aides' report.

Another study dosed eight people with the phat the agency " values the

importance of the scientific and ethical issues surrounding human studies

and is expediting a public rulemaking process to comply with a federal

court decision. "

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in 2003 in a

suit brought by the pesticide industry that the EPA cannot refuse to

consider data from manufacturer-sponsored human exposure tests until it

develops regulations on it.

Agency officials said last November that a new rule on human testing data

would be issued by 2006, and until then each study would be looked at and

accepted unless it is fundamentally unethical or has significant

deficiencies.

Human tests, in the view of pesticide makers, provide more accurate

results than those using animals about the risks of the products to people

and the environment. The companies that use them say they follow safety

guidelines set by Congress, EPA, courts and scientific groups.

The EPA for decades used industry studies gathered from human

tests to help set pesticide exposure levels. Officials say they still

accept the data but don't rely on it for their decision-making.

Last year, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the EPA

establish a human studies review panel to look at such studies, both

before and after they're conducted.

On the Net:

EPA: http://www.epa.gov

06/15/05 22:49 EDT

" If having endured much, we at last asserted our 'right to know' and if,

knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and

frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those

who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals, we

should look around and see what other course is open to us. "

Carson

" My toxicasa (world) is your toxicasa (world). "

Judith Goode