Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE) today issued a request for industry professionals to telephone their senators and ask them to oppose an amendment to the interior appropriations bill promised by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
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On June 14, the association notes that Boxer offered the following amendment to the Senate Interior and Regulated Agencies Appropriations bill, which includes the Environmental Protection Agency:
“None of the funds made available in this Act may be used by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency – (1) to accept, consider, or rely on third-party intentional dosing human studies for pesticides; or (2) to conduct intentional dosing human studies for pesticides.”
RISE says this amendment must be opposed as it jeopardizes public health protections of EPA’s comprehensive regulatory system, noting that the Boxer amendment would prohibit:
Dermal exposure studies designed to establish protective regulatory standards for agricultural and pest control workers
Studies that demonstrate the efficacy of insect repellents that protect people from mosquitoes and other pests that spread disease
Studies designed to assess the efficacy of swimming pool sanitizers that make it safe for children to utilize our public pools
Studies designed to assess the potential for skin irritation and allergic responses
Studies designed to assess how a chemical breaks down in humans to enhance our understanding of potential toxicity and accurately assess exposure levels
Studies that contribute to the process of extrapolating results from animal studies used to estimate risks to people
In a recent report, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)1 concluded that such studies can be ethically performed and “contribute significant and useful knowledge for regulatory standard setting and other forms of public protection.” Moreover, the NAS stated, “[i]n some cases, intentional dosing of humans may be the only way to obtain data needed to set regulatory standards and protect public health.”
”Allegations about “ethics” and “science” put forth by both Senator Boxer and Representative Waxman [who supports the amendment] have already been carefully examined, and effectively invalidated, by the NAS report,’ RISE said in its news release. “Rhetoric aside, the true intent of the amendment appears to be related to their apparent desired outcome of the upcoming August 2006 deadline to reassess pesticides established by the Food Quality Protection Act. In a report2 released on June 14, Senator Boxer and Representative Waxman conclude that without use of these data, a number of pesticide products ‘would be prime candidates for bans or restrictions under the Food Quality Protection Act.’”
RISE says the impact of the amendment theorized by Senator Boxer and Representative Waxman closely mirrors the opinion of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an anti-pesticide advocacy group “that has long lamented that the reliance on human studies by EPA would ‘substantially reduce regulatory pressure to curb or eliminate insecticide use3,’ an outcome in direct conflict with one of EWG’s top agenda items.”
Contact information for each U.S. Senator is available on the Senate Web site. RISE asks encourages professionals to contact their legislators and voice their concern for the amendments.
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