EPA testing rule is challenged

A coalition of activist groups filed lawsuits in two federal courts on Feb. 23 that seeks to overturn an EPA rule that allows testing of pesticides on humans. The groups contend that the regulation issued on Jan. 26 violates a 2005 law that mandates strict ethical and scientific protections for pesticide testing on humans. "EPA's rule allows pesticide companies to use intentional tests on humans to justify weaker restrictions on pesticides," says Margaret Reeves, a senior staff scientist with the Pesticide Action Network North America. The groups also say the rule fails to ensure that pesticide testing on human subjects meets the strictest scientific and ethical standards recommended by a 2004 National Academy of Sciences report and outlined in the Nuremberg Code after World War II. Under the agency's policy on the use of data from human studies, EPA says it will no longer accept research that intentionally tests pesticides on pregnant women and children. The agency is also establishing a human studies review board to provide ethical reviews of existing studies that involve humans. The coalition filed simultaneous lawsuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City, and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco.