Bush has fingered Stephen L. Johnson as new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing Mike Leavitt, who has been nominated for Secretary of Health. As the EPA's assistant administrator for toxic substances, Johnson has taken some controversial positions. Writes Gene C. Gerard in a commentary for Intervention [1] magazine:
During President Clinton's administration, the E.P.A. would not
consider the results of controversial trials that tested pesticides on
people. But after Mr. Bush was elected, Johnson changed E.P.A. policy
to resume consideration. However, a panel of scientists and ethicists
convened by the E.P.A. in 1998 determined that these types of trials
were unethical and scientifically unsuitable to estimate the safety of
chemicals.
In 2001, the trials considered by the E.P.A. gave paid subjects doses
of pesticides 100 to 300 times greater than levels that E.P.A.
officials considered safe for the general public. The E.P.A. evaluated
three studies that year from Dow Chemicals, Bayer Corporation, and the
Gowan Company. The Bayer and Gowan studies were conducted in
third-world countries, where volunteers were more readily available,
while Dow conducted their study in Nebraska....
It's wasn't surprising then that in October of last year, Johnson
strongly supported a study in which infants will be monitored for
health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals for a
two year period. The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study,
dubiously known as CHEERS, will analyze how chemicals can be ingested,
inhaled, or absorbed by children ranging from infants to three year
olds. The study will analyze 60 infants and toddlers in Duval County,
Florida who are routinely exposed to pesticides in their homes. Yet the
E.P.A. acknowledges that pesticide exposure is a documented risk factor
for some types of childhood cancer and the early onset of asthma.
Other aspects of CHEERS are equally troublesome. The participants will
be selected from six health clinics and three hospitals in Duval
County. The E.P.A. study proposal noted that "Although all Duval County
citizens are eligible to use the [health care] centers, they primarily
serve individuals with lower incomes. In the year 2000, 75 percent of
the users of the clinics for pregnancy issues were at or below the
poverty level." The proposal also cited that "The percentage of births
to individuals classified as black in the U.S. Census is higher at
these three hospitals than for the County as a whole."
The E.P.A. is targeting the poor and African-Americans for the study,
presumably in the hope that they will be less informed about the
dangers of exposing their children to pesticides, and will therefore
continue to expose them over the two year period. The study actually
mandates that participants not be provided information about the proper
ways to apply or store pesticides around the home. And the parents
cannot be informed of the risks of prolonged or excessive exposure to
pesticides. Additionally, the study does not provide steps to intervene
if the children show signs of developmental delay or register high
levels of exposure to pesticides in the periodic testing.
Parents receive $970 for participating in the study, but only if they
continue over the two year period. This is a powerful inducement for
these impoverished parents to keep exposing their children to
pesticides.... Additionally, it was disclosed that the American Chemistry
Council gave $2.1 million to the E.P.A. to fund CHEERS. The council is
comprised of many pesticide manufacturers.
The website [2] for the CHEERS program denies that participants will be asked to expose their children to pesticides—probably in response to the criticisms that have been raised. But Gerard writes that the payment "is a powerful inducement for these impoverished parents to keep exposing their children to pesticides."
