Editorial: Tests should first do no harm

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006 | 7:39 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday adopted a controversial new rule that bans pesticide testing on children and pregnant women, but only in studies intended for submission to the agency.

A handful of federal lawmakers earlier this week said the rule, a final draft of which they had obtained from an unnamed Bush administration official, violates the intentions of a moratorium Congress placed on all such tests in August when it also instructed the EPA to establish strict ethical standards.

The new EPA rule includes loopholes that "are contrary to law and widely accepted ethical guidelines," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said earlier this week.

The EPA's rule prohibits most pesticide tests on children and pregnant women. But it does not apply to manufacturers performing such tests as long as there is no intent at the beginning of the research to submit the data to the EPA. However, the EPA can use data from previously completed studies that included tests on humans.

And the rule does not apply to pesticide tests on humans performed outside the United States. Manufacturers say they need the tests, as some human effects of pesticides cannot be replicated in laboratory animals.

It is unthinkable that the federal government would condone on any level the testing of pesticides on any humans. The EPA's standards should protect people and the environment, but this new rule seems best suited to protecting the interests of pesticide manufacturers.