Congresswoman Brown Outraged Over Pesticide Study Reminiscent of Tuskeegee

CONGRESSWOMAN BROWN OUTRAGED OVER PESTICIDE STUDY REMINISCENT OF TUSKEEGEE

(Washington, DC) On Wednesday, April 6th, Congresswoman Corrine Brown and Senator Bill Nelson held a conference call with local Jacksonville media and various Jacksonville Ministers to discuss The E.PA.'s Cheers program (The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study), a research study in Jacksonville, Florida, that, according to The New York Times, ''offered money and video cameras to families willing to allow the agency to measure the effects of pesticides on their infants." The program, it turns out, was suspended last year after receiving terrible publicity in the Jacksonville area. During the program's duration, Duval County residents were offered $970 and a video camera to allow children under 12 months of age to participate in the study about pesticides and household chemicals. For further information about the program, the link to the EPA website is: http://www.epa.gov/cheers/.

With respect to the program, Congresswoman Brown made the following statement:
"The EPA is trying to exploit the poor people in my district for their Tuskeegee-like studies to determine what pesticides do to infants and toddlers in Duval County Florida.
In October, the EPA received $2.1 million to do the study from the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry front group that includes members such as Dow, Exxon, and Monsanto. Critics of the research, including some EPA scientists, claim that funders of the study 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.

The point of the study is to determine what happens to children exposed to pesticides, yet there is no reason to believe that the participants would be informed about incorrect use of pesticides that would abnormally affect the children. Any change in pesticide use would skew the results, and there are not any safeguards to prevent a family from increasing their pesticide use to become eligible for the study.

Years ago, the participants of the Tuskegee study believed that they too were doing their civic duty by providing valuable data and receiving competent care that would give doctors and scientists insight into certain diseases and the effectiveness of various medications on ailments that were affecting primarily African Americans. In the interest of preserving the study, many participants were not notified as to the extent of their illnesses and therefore denied the opportunity to seek adequate treatment. While the argument could be made that an adult can rationally make their own choice, we should not be playing Russian roulette with our children's lives.

I am calling on the EPA to immediately withdraw any further plans to carry out this study to make sure that we don't see another Tuskegee on our hands."

http://www.house.gov/corrinebrown/press109/pr050406.htm