Editorial: Don’t use people as lab rats

Tuesday, July 17, 2001 | 9:46 a.m.

Last year the Loma Linda Medical Center in California created a medical ethics controversy. The medical center said it wanted to test humans to determine whether there were any harmful effects from perchlorate, an industrial pollutant found in rocket fuel that also has been detected in sources of drinking water around the nation. Trying to assess whether perchlorate is dangerous has taken on added importance here because three years ago it was discovered in water at Lake Mead. But the ethics of the testing became an issue when the Loma Linda Medical Center said it would pay volunteers $1,000 each to take pills laced with perchlorate, a potentially toxic substance that some studies say can harm the thyroid gland.

This week the Sun reported that the Loma Linda Medical Center said it was postponing these tests temporarily because of the extensive publicity given to the study, which will be funded by Lockheed Martin, a defense contractor. Despite the controversy, a medical center official said a large number of people wanted to sign up, and they likely were influenced by the money involved. Rather than postpone the testing, the medical center should end any consideration of testing humans this way. There is no need to put people unnecessarily at risk while other options exist to test the danger of perchlorate, including the testing of animals.

An environmental organization, the Environmental Working Group, released a study this week that found that at least 7 million Californians, and millions of other Americans, too, may have been exposed to perchlorate from their drinking water. While Southern Nevadans understandably want to know more about any risks from perchlorate, it just isn't right to allow people to become guinea pigs.