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| Witchvox Chapter: Wren's Nest News | Chapter Page Views: 56,555,285 |
 Update: EPA Will Use Poor Kids As Guinea Pigs In New Study On Pesticides Author: Organicconsumers.org Source: Organicconsumers.org Title: EPA WILL USE POOR KIDS AS GUINEA PIGS IN NEW STUDY ON PESTICIDES   11/16/2004: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Bush appointees, is seeking input on a new proposed study in which infants in participating low income families will be monitored for health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals over the course of two years. The study entitled Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) will look at how chemicals can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed by children ranging from babies to 3 years old.For taking part in these studies, each family will receive $970, a free video camera, a T-shirt, and a framed certificate of appreciation. Participants for the study were chosen from 6 health clinics and three hospitals in Jacksonville, FL. These medical facilities report that 51% of their births are to non-white mothers and 62% of mothers have only received an elementary or secondary education. Important Note on Suspension of the Study: On November 11th, the EPA announced suspension of the study's launch until early 2005 for the sake of "final review." The Organic Consumers Association is taking this opportunity to call on the nation's citizens to demand the EPA permanently terminate this abuse of low income children by the chemical industry. | |
| Community Thoughts: There are 54 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Missing The Point... | Nov 18th. at 6:17:29 pm EST |
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by IreLynx (NY) - wc_xemail I have the feeling that some people are missing the point. Yes, they're exposed to those chemicals normally, and no, they don't *need* to change the amount they use. NEED....key word here. They are offering this up to the poor on a silver platter. These people need to be able to prove that they use enough toxins on a daily basis in order to qualify for the study. Look at what they are offering the people. There are some extremely poor people out there, and they would do whatever it takes to survive. Has anyone even looked at the "prizes". They are giving away things that poor people would jump at the chance to have; bribery. Rich people either already have what's being offered, or they see it as such a miniscule amount that they see no reason to participate. This is exactly why it is geared towards the poor. The fear is that poor people are so desperate that they may purposely increase the toxin use in their homes just so they can *qualify* for the survey. This is precisely why it's wrong. They are bribing the poor with items they could desperately use; money. It's like putting a malnourished dog on a treadmill, on high, and for long periods of time, all while dangling a hotdog in front of him...just to study the effects of exhaustion. And who knows if that dog will ever even get to eat that hotdog. He may die of exhaustion during the study & never get to have that hotdog he was bribed with. So technically, they're not asking the people to increase their intake, but they're giving away good that the poor either truly need, and/or covet. This alone is likely to cause the poor to increase their toxin use to deadly amounts, just to qualify for a survey with needed "prizes". |
| Hmmm... Very Unscientific... | Nov 18th. at 5:48:48 pm EST |
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by Rowan Snapdragon (Memphis, TN) - wc_xemail The study itself seems innocuous, with no additional chemicals introduced to either the child or home. However, I think the study needs more scientific procedure. And I think that is the point of the writer. The public version of the study via EPA certainly sounds like the baseline group, you know normalize the baseline of the data for the rest of the study-- see what the average child is actually exposed to (no manipulation of the Variable in question: CONTROL group!) . The real question is where on Earth the EXPERIMENTAL group is!!! This will probably happen in secret, as is usually the case, and probably contracted out to a firm that operates in a Third World Country, this is par for the course, but don't worry, your tax dollars are hard at work, just like they were in Germany for those very medically enlightening years just before the US got involved in WWII... |
| I Think... | Nov 18th. at 12:08:33 pm EST |
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by Mairi (Connecticut) - wc_xemail ...that what really ticks me off is that the study is for a limited time period, and the actual, real damage will not show up in the children for years after the study is completed; however, the chemical companies will use the results to "prove" that their products don't cause any damage. |
| At Least A Few Of You Can Read... | Nov 18th. at 10:34:54 am EST |
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by Republican_Witch (NY, NY) - wc_xemail How difficult is it to look at the EPA website to find out exactly what this study is about? The article from Organicconsumers.org is misleading, and most of you have simply accepted what they've said & joined the hysteria. Thank the Goddess there are still a couple of pagans out there who can read. |
| Let The Victim-blaming Begin | Nov 18th. at 8:04:09 am EST |
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by Lora (Massachusetts) - wc_xemail This sounds like yet another victim-blaming study, or at least one that will be used to blame people for chemical exposures they cannot avoid. Lead, we all know, is highly toxic, all the more so to young people. The EPA did a study, oh, many years ago, finding out that lead has profound developmental effects on the brains of kids and isn't particularly great for adults either. What was the response? Send out flyers and notices to parents that they need to have their homes checked for lead paint. Note: landlords and chemical companies were NOT prosecuted by the EPA or any other agency for allowing lead paint to remain in their tenants' buildings, even when severe brain damage occured in the tenants' children. While there were a few private lawsuits, those didn't get very far, because, well, how many residents of East St. Louis can afford a team of lawyers? Instead, parents were exhorted to make sure their kids didn't eat lead paint chips and to remediate their landlords' properties. Will your landlord let you tear out plaster and drywall, even on your own dime, assuming you actually have several thousand $$ for lead remediation? Cause mine sure won't. These people had three choices: try to move someplace without lead (an impossibility if the lead comes from the local chemical factory and is everywhere in the area) , live under a poisoned roof, or be homeless. That's not a choice anyone should have to face, but those are the choices our great country offers poor people. This sounds like yet another study that will be used to beat poor people with: if your kids are sick, somehow this is your fault for using too many chemicals. It won't be the fault of the chemical companies for failing to properly label their products or safety-test them, or the fault of polluters who have accidental spills that run to thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals dumped wholesale into local water tables which are deemed "too expensive" to clean up properly, or the fault of companies who simply illegally dump their chemical waste into the local rivers and soil. No, somehow this will be the poor peoples' fault, and mark my words, there will be many many ignorant people who will say, "Well, so what? If ya don't wanna live near chemicals, move ta Montana or someplace, " completely and blissfully ignorant that even in extremely rural areas, there is STILL toxic chemical waste from mine drainage, mining slag, asbestos dumps, landfill leachate, and oh yeah, tons and tons of farming pesticides. Chemicals are not avoidable in this day and age, sorry. There is nowhere to run to or move to, and if they are killing us and poisoning the earth, then I suppose we have reaped everything we've sown. |
| Go To The Source | Nov 18th. at 6:57:21 am EST |
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by Cloud (NC) - wc_xemail Go to the EPA website and read the description of the project. The families who choose to participate in this project are not required to change anything about their lives. The agency has selected an area where pesticide use is known to be high, so the families involved will be exposed to those things in the course of their daily lives anyhow. Outrage should be reserved for those who poison Mother Earth with synthetic pesticides and noxious chemicals with no thought to the effects on the local enviroment and the people who must live there, not those who are trying to collect hard data that enviromental and family advocates can use to get laws changed and make it illegal to use dangerous chemicals. |
| Unethical | Nov 18th. at 5:15:16 am EST |
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by Willow (Washington) - wc_xemail - Web This is unethical. It's inhumane. I'm completely disgusted and outraged that this is even being considered. Frankly, I don't give a damn who says what in it's favor. There is nothing that can make this okay. They're CHILDREN! If Bush thinks this is alright, I would like to see him have his daughters participate. This cannot be right. I come from a low-income family. I'm sixteen, and my youngest brother is five. I would not let him go through that, and no amount of money could ever compensate for the toxins being forced into his body. I realize that it won't be any of us doing this study, but if this gets approved, think of how the next generation of our country could end up. It makes me sad that when I have children, it will most likely be their age group pumped full of poison and sent out into the world. I'd like to know what God is speaking to Bush, and if he told him it's okay. I cannot believe that any deity would want their own children destroyed like this. |
| Reminds Me... | Nov 18th. at 4:12:28 am EST |
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by KamiNeko (The Disc) - wc_xemail ...of the tests they did on men of color several decades ago regarding syphilis... |
| I Can't Think Of A Headline | Nov 18th. at 3:36:15 am EST |
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by Darkstar Treespirit (Earth) - wc_xemail - Web I am old and grumpy, and it takes a lot to make me almost cry. The hidden potential in any down and out person, animal or entity only takes a positive hope to bring it out to expand it. BESIDES THAT NOBODY SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THIS. The imposed arrogance of these officials almost makes me look forward to geothermic subduction. I think our country's forfathers just about put this together in thier Declaration of Independence. ref: [Web LINK] Excerpt: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. |
| Exaggeration! | Nov 18th. at 3:26:43 am EST |
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by Joshua W. (Jacksonville Florida) - wc_xemail I read this article and yes, it freaked me out, but I looked into it some more and found that it is very exaggerated. First of all I can find nothing that says it is just for "the poor" to participate in. Also a quote from the EPA's site "Participants are not required to use pesticides or to change any of their regular household routines or how they normally use bug sprays (pesticides) . " |
| No Way | Nov 18th. at 1:40:03 am EST |
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by Songflower Mari (California) - wc_xemail This would never get past the Internal Review Board (IRB) ....the board that monitors eithcs in studies |
| Disposable Humans | Nov 18th. at 12:45:12 am EST |
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by Nateseia (Canada) - wc_xemail .....it's a western ideology, put into action that the young and old, especially those in poverty conditions have no value in our society. As someone in the nursing profession, I have seen and am sickened by the warehousing of the aged and infirm, under conditions that are deplorable to indutrialized society. That a 'program' such as the one being launched and legitemized is hardly suprising considering the known humanitarian crimes commited by an apparent democrat, ' justice for all' society. There's not much freedom in poverty, but hey, if thy're going to give you a prize and plaque for it, make sure you you keep the plaque for the gravestone. This is horrendous, and deploreable, but hey...we all know that God tells Bush how to lead the country. |
| Hitler | Nov 17th. at 11:04:31 pm EST |
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by Angie (South Carolina) - wc_xemail I thought HITLER was dead!!!! May evil deeds return 10 time fold."Save the children! " |
| Can We Send This??? | Nov 17th. at 10:35:40 pm EST |
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by D. J. (US) - wc_xemail - Web Can we send this article to Kathleen Parker? Oh wait, that's right, her email doesn't work. |
| Well, Well, Well........... | Nov 17th. at 10:14:12 pm EST |
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by Xandrina (USA) - wc_xemail Why do they not offer this study to the wealthy? They are the ones who can afford the luxury of expensive household cleaners. Why are they conducting a study to find out what effects chemicals have on babies and children? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that babies are precious and very delicate and that they need to be protected from chemicals. DUH! Evidently, the government is aware that some disadvantaged children live in unhealthy environments why don't they spend their time, money and energy on making changes to the public housing and those properties that they lease to the disadvantaged parents? I am unable to comprehend the way that our government thinks and works. GOD AND GODDESS PLEASE PROTECT THE CHILDREN Blessed be, Xandrina |
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