Inhumane conclusion?
a recent us report may have wide-ranging impacts on international pesticide research and human health because it has given a clean chit to human testing of pesticides in the country. Intentional human dosing studies for epa regulatory purposes: scientific and ethical issues was drafted by the us National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Use of Third Party Toxicity Research with Human Research Participants, Technology and Law Programme.
Among other things, the committee advises the us Environmental Protection Agency (epa) to impose stringent scientific and ethical standards on the trials. It recommends setting up of a Human Studies Review Board to ensure the standards will be adhered to. It also addresses the issue of reimbursing the subjects, and has advised the epa to further study whether compensation should be given to subjects injured during the experiments. According to epa's spokesperson, the findings would be weighed soon and final rules will be formulated in the coming months.
Controversy about the trials started in 1996 when the country's Food Quality and Protection Act was passed, tightening safety standards on pesticides. Thereafter, the chemical industry conducted human trials to prove its products were safe. This led to an uproar and environmentalists pressurised epa to halt the trials till evidence was provided about their feasibility. Hence the epa commissioned usa's foremost scientific agency to mull over the issue.
Predictably, the pesticide industry has welcomed the report. According to a statement of CropLife America