[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] GREEN RELEASE Greens blast new EPA deregulation of pesticide tests on humans

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
>http://www.gp.org
>
>For Immediate Release:
>Thursday, December 9, 2004
>
>Contacts:
>Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
>cell 202-487-0693, mclarty at greens.org
>Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576,
>nallen at acadia.net
>
>
>GREENS CRITICIZE NEW EPA POLICIES DEREGULATING
>HUMAN TESTING FOR PESTICIDES
>
>Chemical corporations are seeking approval for
>toxic experiments on low-income Americans, say
>Greens.
>
>
>WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders strongly
>criticized an announcement from the Environmental
>Protection Agency that it would allow experiments
>using human subjects to test the safety of
>pesticides without government oversight.
>
>According to a November 30 EPA announcement, the
>agency will not establish rules to prevent
>unethical experimentation, but will handle
>"ethically problematic studies on a case-by-case
>basis."
>
>"The lack of oversight on the testing of
>pesticides on human subjects will open door to
>all kinds of abuses," said Gray Newman, Soil &
>Water District Commissioner in Mecklenburg, North
>Carolina and co-chair of the Green Party of the
>United States.  "The new policy gives EPA
>bureaucrats no guidelines for judging what
>constitutes  'ethical concerns.'  Investigation
>of abuses will be arbitrary and subject to the
>political loyalties of EPA appointees and the
>influence of pesticide lobbies."
>
>Greens noted that the news of the EPA's policy
>coincides with reports that rat poisoning rates
>in children have tripled since 2001, when the
>Bush Administration worked a backroom deal with
>chemical lobbies to weaken rat poison regulations
>designed to protect children, according to the
>American Association of Poison Control Centers
>(Los Angeles Times, Nov. 13, 2004,
><http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/ratpoison111704.cfm>).
>
>"The drastic increase in rat poisoning cases
>involving children shows us what pesticide
>companies are capable of in the absence of
>oversight," said Jody Grage Haug, co-chair of the
>Green Party.  "The EPA initially green-lighted an
>industry-funded project in Jacksonville, Florida,
>in which parents will be paid to use
>neurologically harmful pesticides and record
>their children's reactions to the chemicals on
>camera.  Since many or most of the families who
>will sign up for the experiment are likely to be
>low-income, the so-called Children's
>Environmental Exposure Research Study ['CHEERS']
>amounts to a plan to poison poor kids."
>
>The EPA received $2.1 million to fund the CHEERS
>study from the American Chemistry Council, which
>includes Dow, Exxon, Monsanto, and other
>corporations.  The study violates ethics
>standards by exposing the children to health
>risks, exploiting the financial vulnerability of
>their families, and permitting industries who
>have a vested interest in the outcome to fund the
>study.  CHEERS has been put on hold after a
>public outcry, but has not been canceled.
>
>"Bush Administration and industry officials
>should be held criminally responsible for harm
>done to children as a result of these policies,"
>said Starlene Rankin, Lavender Green Caucus
>delegate to the national party.
>
>
>MORE INFORMATION
>
>The Green Party of the United States
>http://www.gp.org
>1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
>Washington, DC 20009.
>202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
>Fax 202-319-7193
>
>"EPA set to accept human pesticide dosing
>studies; 'Senior Agency Officials' to Decide
>Ethical Concerns on 'Case-By-Case Basis'"
>Public Employees for Environmental
>Responsibility: Press release, November 30, 2004
>http://www.peer.org/press/539.html
>
>"EPA's backroom deal with chemical companies
>increases rat poisoning rate in kids"
>Organic Consumers Association
>http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa.htm
>
>The Child Proofing Our Communities Campaign: A
>project of the Center for Health, Environment &
>Justice
>http://www.childproofing.org
>
>2004 Cobb/LaMarche Campaign: news on the Ohio
>recount
>http://www.votecobb.org
>
>
>~ END ~
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand