Study of Pesticides and Children Stirs Protests - 10.30.04 - Wash. Post

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Study of Pesticides and Children Stirs Protests

Staffers Fear EPA Project Endangers Participants

By t EilperinWashington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, October 30, 2004; Page A02

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10728-2004Oct29.html

An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to study young children's

exposure to pesticides has sparked a flurry of internal agency protests,

with several career officials questioning whether the survey will harm

vulnerable infants and toddlers.

The EPA announced this month that it was launching a two-year investigation,

partially funded by the American Chemical Council, of how 60 children in

Duval County, Fla., absorb pesticides and other household chemicals. The

chemical industry funding initially prompted some environmentalists to

question whether the study would be biased, and some rank-and-file agency

scientists are now questioning whether the plan will exploit financially

strapped families.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposes to study the effect on children

of pesticide exposure. ( A. Woodward -- The Washington Post)

In exchange for participating for two years in the Children's Environmental

Exposure Research Study, which involves infants and children up to age 3,

the EPA will give each family using pesticides in their home $970, some

children's clothing and a camcorder that parents can keep.

EPA officials in states such as Georgia and Colorado fired off e-mail

messages to each other this week suggesting the study lacked safeguards to

ensure that low-income families would not be swayed into exposing their

children to hazardous chemicals in exchange for money and high-tech

gadgetry. Pesticide exposure has been linked to neurological problems, lung

damage and birth defects.

Suzanne Wuerthele, the EPA's regional toxicologist in Denver, wrote her

colleagues on Wednesday that after reviewing the project's design, she

feared poor families would not understand the dangers associated with

pesticide exposure.

" It is important that EPA behaves ethically, consistently, and in a way that

engenders public health. Unless these issues are resolved, it is likely that

all three goals will be compromised, and the agency's reputation will

suffer, " she wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Post. " EPA

researchers will not tell participants that using pesticides always entails

some risk, and not using pesticides will reduce that risk to zero. "

Troy Pierce, a life scientist in the EPA's Atlanta-based pesticides section,

wrote in a separate e-mail: " This does sound like it goes against everything

we recommend at EPA concerning use of [pesticides] related to children.

Paying families in Florida to have their homes routinely treated with

pesticides is very sad when we at EPA know that [pesticide management]

should always be used to protect children. "

S. Sheldon, acting administrator for the human exposure and

atmospheric sciences division of the EPA's Office of Research and

Development, said the agency would educate families participating in the

study and inform them if their children's urine showed risky levels of

pesticides. She said it was crucial for the agency to study small children

because so little is known about how their bodies absorb harmful chemicals.

" We are developing the scientific building blocks that will allow us to

protect children, " Sheldon said, adding that the study design was reviewed

by five independent panels of academics, officials of the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, and representatives of the Duval County

Health Department.

Families can remain in the study even if they stop using pesticides, Sheldon

said, as long as they were using them before the experiment started. It was

unlikely that any family would volunteer for the study out of financial

need, she added, because researchers will require parents to invest time in

monitoring their children's activities and diet.

" Nobody can go into this study just for that amount of money, " Sheldon said.

R. Alta Charo, a professor of bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at

Madison's law and medical schools who co-authored a National Academy of

Sciences report last year on the use of pesticides for research, said EPA

officials were struggling with how to balance the need to protect the

individual child's interests against the goal of pursuing a broader

scientific agenda.

While she said the agency's approach was reasonable, Charo said it did raise

ethical questions.

" Where is the line between enticement and a godfather offer " that

impoverished families would find hard to refuse, Charo said. " That is really

troubling. We make these decisions over and over in public policy. This is

one of those moments. "

Several EPA officials, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of

retaliation, also questioned why the agency removed the study design and its

recruitment flier from the EPA's Web site once some scientists started to

complain about the project. Sheldon said the agency is rewriting how it

portrays the research.

" We removed it so we could modify it, so it would make more sense, " she

said.

2004 The Washington Post Company