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Chemical Testing on Infants in Florida

by ABB

Fri Dec 17, 2004 at 12:24:58 PM PDT

Yes, as unbeliveable as it is, researchers in Jacksonville, Flordia are asking families offer up their infant children to a study called "Cheers."  The CHEERS actually stands for Children's Environmental Research Study Cheery right? Who's allowing and even sponsoring this study? The Environmental Protection Agency.  The program is offering a number of inducements if the families stay in the program for two years, including a camcorder and $970.
According to Public Employees for Environmental Justice, the EPA is paying familes to spray pesticides in their homes to study the amount of chemicals absorbed by the infants and possible developmental problems. The study is funded by the American Chemistry Council and many chemical companies.

When the EPA's own scientists protested, the EPA removed the information from their webstite.  Now you can read about it here.

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Permalink | 2 comments

  •  Is this for real??!? (none / 0)

    Do you have any other information on this?  This sounds just too insane to be for real.  I'm going to go do some searching and see what I come up with on this.  If the report on the PEER website is accurate I think some folks at EPA need to have charges filed against them.

    by OtherDoug on Sun Dec 19, 2004 at 06:37:02 PM PDT

  •  Check out this article on Snopes.com (none / 0)

    They provide a bit of information about the study that contradicts the most egregious claim by PEER.  Infants will not be deliberately exposed to pesticides.  The children being studied live in an area with high levels of year-round pesticide use.  The study will attempt to quantify their environmental exposure through monitoring and documentation by parents.

    There is an ethical question involved here that needs to be addressed.  The monitoring by parents offers an opportunity to see how much pesticide children are being exposed to.  Does the EPA have a moral obligation to determine the exposure levels at the earliest possible time and report this to parents so they can protect their children?  This would seriously undermine the methodology of the study, and so may not be the course of action proposed.  This may be the issue that the EPA researchers are struggling with.  I've heard of other similar dilemmas in research.

    You can check out the Snopes.com article here.

    by OtherDoug on Sun Dec 19, 2004 at 07:04:30 PM PDT

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