EPA Okays Chemical Testing On Fetal Tissue

Washington, DC—Without any public notice, the US Environmental Protection Agency has rewritten its proposed rule on human experiments to authorize chemical testing on fetal tissue, according to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The change will allow pesticide and chemical companies to conduct experiments on aborted fetuses to buttress lobbying efforts for relaxation of federal regulation and increases in allowable dosage levels for its products.

EPA's wording change came after the public comment period ended on its controversial plan to accept and conduct chemical experiments on humans. EPA's proposed rule would have forbidden intentional exposure of a "pregnant woman, fetus, or newborn" but in its Final Rule announced on January 26, 2006, EPA altered the language to forbid intentional exposure of human subjects who are "pregnant women (and therefore their fetuses) or children."

This wording change would appear to allow the use of a fetus or its tissue no longer within a pregnant woman for experiments. This rewrite came without any explanation by EPA.

It was EPA's sponsorship (in partnership with the American Chemistry Council) of an experiment called "CHEERS" in which Florida parents would have been paid to spray pesticides in the rooms of their infant children that sparked a renewed debate on human experiments for commercial purposes, such as setting pesticide exposure limits.

Truthout.org 4/28/06