BUSH crew is killing American CHILDREN!

[AnIndependentTexan]

http://www.ems.org/nws/2004/11/08/epa_pesticide_st

EPA Pesticide Study Endangers
Children’s Health


Environmentalists Call for Immediate Halt
of Unethical Study

Farmingdale, NY- Environmentalists are calling for the immediate halt to an EPA study that raises serious environmental justice and racism concerns by enticing low-income families to expose infants and toddlers to harmful pesticides.

The study entitled CHEERS (Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study) pays participants in Duval County, Florida, up to $970 and offers them a free camcorder, free VCR, as well as t-shirts, calendars, bibs, and a framed Certificate of Appreciation. Participants are asked to “maintain” their normal pesticide applications throughout their home for two years. The EPA will monitor developmental changes in babies, from birth to 3 years, who are exposed to pesticides in their home. The study looks at 60 children, with less than 10% representing a control group, which consists of children that have low pesticide exposure, rather than no exposure at all.

The widespread use of toxic pesticides in homes is a serious threat to our children’s health. Many commonly used products contain ingredients that can affect the nervous system, cause birth defects, increase asthma rates and are suspected to cause cancer. “The EPA’s role is to protect infants and children from harmful pesticides, not encourage exposure!” said Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE). “CCE believes this study is unethical and dangerous to infants and children. We are sickened by the fact that the EPA views infants and children as acceptable test subjects. Frankly, we are appalled and horrified by the whole study ” Esposito added.

The study solicited participants from 6 health clinics and 3 hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida. According to the study, the 6 health clinics “primarily serve individuals with lower incomes” and the 3 hospitals report 51% of all births were to non-white mothers, with a 62% of all mothers having only received an elementary or secondary education.

The selection criteria for the study requires that a participant must spray or have pesticides sprayed inside their home routinely. “This study solicits people that may be easily persuaded to maintain or increase their pesticide use to receive monetary and other forms of compensation,” stated Maureen Dolan, Program Coordinator CCE. “It has been clearly designed to target lower income families and to endanger the health of their children, making it grossly unethical,” Dolan added.
The study has received $2 million in funding from the American Chemistry Council, which represents 135 companies, including pesticide manufactures, leading one to question the motives of the study.

CCE has written to EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt to ask him to halt the study. “CCE believes that it is unethical that an agency set up to protect public health and the environment would advance a study designed to endanger the most vulnerable members of our society, infants and toddlers. This study must be stopped immediately so as not to set a precedent for future similar studies,” stated Esposito. “Once the study is stopped, CCE would welcome the unexpended dollars to be allocated to expand educational outreach on the dangers pesticides pose to children and vulnerable populations,” Esposito concluded.

[juliagoolia]

1. IS THIS A NORTON THING>??

WHO DID THIS??

THIS IS NUTS!

[central scrutinizer]

8. but, but, look at the great gifts you get

<>

Thanks for playing, let's have a warm round of applause for these great contestants!!

http://www.epa.gov/cheers/basic.htm#do

[Cassandra]

2. Dr. Mengele would be proud.

What gave these mentally and morally challenged idiots the idea that this would be OK?

[The Doctor.]

4. They grew up on pesticides too....

Haven't these people heard of 'projection' or 'extrapolation' or pre-exiting documentation?

Assholes.

[atreides1]

5. Mengele

Got his ideas from the US study of Eugenics, so what he did was to build on what already was there, thanks to the good old US of A

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Just what I was thinking!

Do they just want TWINS?

[NamVetsWeeLass]

3. This is an OUTRAGE!!!!!!!

Isn't it enough that they ignore children of vets exposed to Agent Orange who have unexplained Health Problems? (being one of them I can attest to the validity of what I say...oddly a few friends have the same things going wrong that I do.... all are daughters of vets.)

[oscar111]

6. 84,000 homeless die/yr, some children

just to add to the list , the list of bush caused deaths.

some hmless are kids, and the hmless die at three times the normal rate.. heat, cold, rat bites.

The pestside study.. in FLA, how fitting. Jeb's area.

Ps what is "a Norton thing"?

[Polly Glot]

7. My freeper mother-in-law's take on this - I saw this article and

forwarded it to everyone I know as well as signing a petition to stop it:

"I had read about it in our paper and thought that it was a very bad idea - some parents value a dollar more than the welfare of their children."

(Italics mine)


Ummm...HELLO?!?!?!?! They just don't get it do they?!?

:wtf:

[Manfred]

10. Well they started with most of us,

then went to the 18 year old soldiers, then there going to the children, is it a surprise?

[TrustingDog]

11. get outta here! this has got to be an Onion article....

please say it is so.

didn't an EPA person just resign today?

[AnIndependentTexan]

12. I don't think a Onion article would have a .gov on it as the site!

http://www.epa.gov/cheers/

[TrustingDog]

13. holy crapola shitsticks! unbelievable!

the pure evil madness of King George is accelerating. He's got his leadfoot to the floorboards and is careening toward us all in his torture and suffering deathmobile.

This is getting sooo bizarre. I guess they can get away with anything now, now that they think half the country condoned this kind of idiotcy with their votes.

Fear and Apprehension - think I'll re-name my goldfish just as a reminder of how fucked up things are getting.

[babylonsister]

14. Excuse me? Wasn't this tried on Long Island,

NY, years ago, with the result being all those women who got breast cancer, including myself at the age of 27? And I remember those pesticide trucks. Unbelieveable, and sad...

[FizzFuzz]

16. oh babylonsister

:cry: my heart breaks.

[babylonsister]

17. Thanks, FF, but

don't feel bad. That was 22 years ago, and I'm over it now. I feel really sorry for these poor kids though. Who knows what this will do to them by the time they're 27, if they make it?

EDIT: I HOPE I'm over it, but get tested yearly.

[FizzFuzz]

23. I can't help it, it was painful to read that.

I'm glad you're past it though.
Still, its an outrage. This is the kind of thing I would think would open the eyes of the people who think Bush is godly, but try to explain this stuff and they go blank. Or berserk.

Seems like so many of these low level poisons target female biology.

[FizzFuzz]

15. who in the EPA or in FLA signed off on this?

boy it sure would be good to see the paper trail. Bush appointee, spouting Bush propaganda, name on this would be useful.

[AnIndependentTexan]

21. the paper trail and list of Bush appointee

http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm

In October, the EPA received $2 million to do the study from the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry front group that includes members such as Dow, Exxon, and Monsanto (see full list of members on sidebar of this page). Critics of the research claim the study's funders guarantee the results will be biased in favor of the chemical industry, at the expense of the health of the impoverished children serving as test subjects.

[AnIndependentTexan]

24. More names!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Paul Gilman, Carol Henry, Linda Sheldon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62569-2004Oct25?language=printer

Paul Gilman, who serves as science adviser and assistant administrator for the EPA's office of research and development, said the money will help the agency conduct "groundbreaking work" on how chemicals are absorbed by infants and children as old as 3.

Carol Henry, vice president for science and research at the American Chemistry Council, said her industry wanted to promote a better understanding of the risks associated with chemical exposure. Teaming up with a preexisting federal study gives her group financial leverage, she said.

Linda Sheldon, acting director for the EPA's human exposure and atmospheric sciences division, said the agency has "very little information about how children may be exposed to chemicals in household products, whether it's through the air they breathe, food they eat or the surfaces they touch."

[AnIndependentTexan]

25. can someone research these names? Paul Gilman, Carol Henry, Linda Sheldon

[FizzFuzz]

26. Thanks AITexan

Maybe I'll copy this and email to the born agains in the office. I sure would love to. This is the kind of thing that might make a crack in their "Blessed" armor. Maybe. Or maybe I'd get in deep doo at work. gotta think about it.

absolutely beyond disgusting.

On Edit--I checked that link and apparently there was enough of an outcry that the study has been sent for review by outside researchers.

from http://www.grist.org/news/daily/2004/11/10/ , "Grist", clipped from Washington Post, Nov 10, 2004
<snip>
"Since the study was announced last month, many have raised concerns, including scientists within EPA. We want to be responsive to those concerns," said EPA spokesperson Cynthia Bergman. The agency will convene a panel of independent experts to assess the study, though it's already been approved by several such panels. Says Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, "Regardless of the number of reviews, paying poor parents to dose their babies with commercial poisons to measure their exposure is just plain wrong."

[AnIndependentTexan]

28. boo

[ElementaryPenguin]

18. This fucking outrageous! Not surprising that it's been conducted in FLA!

These sick monsters have got to be stoppped! What next? Torture chamber studies using senior citizens in Palm Beach County?

[AnIndependentTexan]

19. found the petition!!!!!!

http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm

11/12/2004: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Bush appointees

Sign Petition to Stop Pesticide Study on Kids!
http://www.organicconsumers.org/epa-alert.htm#pesticide

[Fridays Child]

20. I'm holding out for the flat screen TV.

I won't pimp my kids for anything less, damn it!

[Poiuyt]

22. Don't forget the children of Iraq

I heard that the average age of all the Iraqi citizens killed is 12.

[AnIndependentTexan]

27. US EPA chemical study criticised

http://www.greenconsumerguide.com/index.php?news=2282

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study into the health effects of household chemicals has been called ‘unethical’ and harmful by a green campaign group. The EPA’s CHEERS (Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study) involves participants maintaining their normal pesticide and chemical applications around their homes for a period of two years. During that time, the EPA will monitor developmental changes in sixty children with varying exposure to everyday chemical materials, and chart their developmental progress. Participating families receive money and electrical items such as camcorders and video recorders.

[noamnety]

29. I'm not convinced

I read the .gov site. From that, it's very clear they are studying both families that use pesticides (which would be common in Florida because of roaches) and those that don't. They are very clear in stating that nobody is asked to use pesticides.

If that's true (which is an "if", to be sure) than they aren't endangering anyone. The parents independently were already endangering the kids, and the EPA is just monitoring their health.

If there is any evidence that in fact they ARE coercing families to switch their existing pesticide routine, than the gloves come off. But I would read the .gov site first.