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P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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Stop EPA From Testing Pesticides on Children
December 1, 2004
Children's advocates were stunned in early November as the U.S
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new study of
pesticide impacts on children that planned to offer money and
camcorders to families for exposing their infants and toddlers
to pesticides. After a chorus of opposition, EPA postponed, but
didn't cancel the industry funded Children's Environmental Exposure
Research Study (CHEERS) in Duval County, Florida. Sign our petition
urging EPA to cancel the study, return the money, and give parents
the facts about the serious health risks that pesticides pose
to children.
The testing of pesticides on infants and children has clear ethical
implications. Scientific evidence clearly suggests that children
in homes where home and garden pesticides are used are more likely
to develop serious diseases, including asthma and childhood cancers.
A recent study reports children with early persistent asthma were
10 times more likely to have been exposed to herbicides and insecticides
in their first year. Children under five who live in homes where
pesticides are applied may face a risk of childhood leukemia 11
times greater than those who live where no pesticides are applied.
Home use of insecticide foggers has been associated with a risk
of brain tumors in children that is more than 10 times higher.
As more organophosphorus (OP) insecticides are being replaced
with pyrethroids-many of which are endocrine disrupting compounds-new
adverse effects are likely to surface. Exposure to neurotoxic
pesticides, including OPs and pyrethroids, is suspected as a possible
cause of learning disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Attention Deficit
Disorder, conditions that have reached epidemic proportions in
the U.S. While the epidemiological data are not in yet, animal
models suggest there is reason for concern.
The CHEERS project was criticized for its offers of cash rewards
and camcorders to families that regularly spray pesticides in
their home. Although the website for the study promises, "EPA
will not ask parents to apply pesticides in their home to be a
part of this study" the offering of prizes may encourage
families unaccustomed to using pesticides in the home to change
their habits to become eligible. The clinics and hospitals selected
as recruitment sites in Duvall County predominantly serve low-income
communities and serve a greater proportion of African Americans
than the rest of the county, thus the children from low income
communities of color are likely to bear the greatest risks in
this EPA-led study.
EPA plans to accept $2.1 million from the American Chemistry
Council (ACC) to fund this ethically questionable study. Instead
of allowing the pesticide industry to direct its research priorities,
the agency should be doing all it can to prevent children's exposure
to toxic pesticides. EPA should be informing parents of the risks
of home pesticide use and promoting alternatives. Instead it has
chosen collaboration with the industry that produces these chemicals
to see how much exposure is "acceptable."
Sign our petition asking EPA to firmly and permanently back away
from the CHEERS study, and begin speaking the truth to parents
about pesticide risks. See the petition at, http://www.petitiononline.com/NoCheers/.
Sources: EPA CHEERS website: http://www.epa.gov/cheers;
Buckley, J.D., L.L. Robinson, R. Swotinsky, et al. 1989, Occupational
exposures of parents of children with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia:
A report from the Children's Cancer Study Group, Cancer Research
49: 4030-37; Lowengart, R.A., J.M. Peters, C. Cicioni, et al.
1987. Childhood leukemia and parents' occupational and home exposures,
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 79(1): 39-46; Pogoda,
J.M. and S. Preston-Martin. 1997. Household pesticides and risk
of pediatric brain tumors, Environmental Health Perspectives,
105(11): 1214-20.
Contact: PANNA.
PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides
and reporting on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage
by the mainstream media. It's produced by Pesticide Action Network
North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization
working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.
You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our
work and all contributions are tax deductible in the United States.
Visit http://www.panna.org/donate.
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Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
Phone: (415) 981-1771
Fax: (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
Web: http://www.panna.org
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