Congressional Democrats accused the US government environment body yesterday of opening the door to tests of pesticides on humans that "appear to routinely violate ethical standards".
The Democrats issued a report saying that, since lifting a moratorium on human testing imposed by the Clinton administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had accepted for review more than 20 studies on the effects on human subjects of "highly hazardous" poisons and suspected carcinogens.
Article continues Critics said that by showing its willingness to look at such studies, the EPA was encouraging pesticide manufacturers to sponsor more human tests.
"We anticipate that these tests are going on now all over the world, but there's no way of knowing [because the EPA has not required notification]," said Erik Olson, a lawyer for the National Resources Defence Council.
That's a recipe for disaster when the federal government is encouraging them to go ahead by accepting these tests."
The congressional report was sponsored by Barbara Boxer, a California senator, and Henry Waxman, a congressman from the same state.
"In violation of ethical standards, the experiments appear to have inflicted harm on human subjects, failed to obtain informed consent, dismissed adverse outcomes and lacked scientific validity," the report found.
Eryn Witcher, the EPA's press secretary issued a statement last night saying: "The agency values the importance of the scientific and ethical issues surrounding human studies, which is why the agency is expediting the process to issue its first-ever regulation on third-party studies."
Critics fear that EPA approval of the human tests could lead to a relaxation of US standards.
The EPA has yet to approve any of the human studies submitted to it, but its critics argue that simply by showing readiness to assess the tests in a formal announcement in February, the agency was giving manufacturers a green light.