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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (73408)	7/8/2005 10:01:51 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

No pesticides on kids Palm Beach Post Editorial Thursday, July 07, 2005 Congress can approve pesticide testing on humans as soon as lawmakers volunteer their families as subjects for the research. Last week, the Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from intentionally exposing people to pesticides to determine whether the government should allow their use. The rejection of human testing wasn't as surprising as the fact that 37 senators actually voted the other way. How many of them are ready to have their children get the first spray? This is a good question for Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who was one of the 37 to support human testing. Sen. Martinez, according to his spokesman, believes the provision was "too broad" and that the EPA should have the same ability to test pesticides on people that the Food and Drug Administration has to test prescription drugs. He apparently ignores the rather compelling difference that pesticides are poisons meant to kill and prescription drugs are meant to heal. A more plausible explanation is that Sen. Martinez was intent on pleasing the White House and the chemical industry. Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., sponsored the legislation that prevents the government from compromising moral and ethical standards. The Clinton administration declared a moratorium on human testing seven years ago, but President Bush has resurrected its use. Sen. Nelson rightly was disgusted by the way the EPA found its subjects in Jacksonville. The agency targeted low-income and minority areas and offered cash prizes and T-shirts to children who were willing to participate. The EPA is writing new rules that could validate testing even on infants and pregnant women. Turning newborns into human guinea pigs is behavior for totalitarian regimes and hardly consistent with an administration that purports to have cornered the market on the value of each human life. palmbeachpost.com