INCOMING: EPA To Pass Regulation Allowing Pesticide Testing on Children WITHOUT Consent

This is completely and entirely unacceptable and unconscionable.

Regardless of your partisan positions PLEASE immediately circulate and take action on this information!

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is just days away from publishing a new federal regulation that will allow the testing of chemicals and pesticides on human subjects. On August 2, 2005, Congress had mandated the EPA create a rule that permanently bans chemical testing on pregnant women and children, without exception. But the EPA's newly proposed rule, is ridden with exceptions where chemical studies may be performed on children in certain situations like the following:

• Children who 'cannot be reasonably consulted,' such as those that are mentally handicapped or orphaned newborns, may be tested on. With permission from the institution or guardian in charge of the individual, the child may be exposed to chemicals for the sake of research.

• Parental consent forms are not necessary for testing on children who have been neglected or abused.

• Chemical studies on any children outside of the U.S. are acceptable.

Despite receiving over 50,000 letters from citizens, congress, and EPA's own scientists opposing the proposed rule, on January 24, the EPA notified the Associated Press, saying they are on the threshold of approving the proposal and allowing chemical testing on children.

'The fact that EPA allows pesticide testing of any kind on the most vulnerable, including abused and neglected children, is simply astonishing,' said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Even EPA's own scientists are speaking out against the agency's proposed rule. 'I am somewhat dismayed that this rule was presented in such a complex -- and I would have to say, tricky -- way,' said Suzanne Wuerthele, a regional toxicologist for the EPA."