Tests on humans

According to a recently released report, results from four human pesticide experiments have been submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since 1992, and EPA regulators believe that more are underway in the UK. The growing use of human testing to solve US regulatory problems was revealed in a new report from  the Environmental Working Group, (EWG) entitled The English Patients:  Human Experiments and Pesticide Policy. 
    Studies on lab animals are still routinely conducted for pesticides. But in recent years, in a number of experiments that are raising ethical and scientific questions inside and outside government, the products are being tested on humans. According to the report, most of these recent tests have been performed in England and Scotland.  
    Last year, Amvac Chemical Corporation, a California pesticide company, hired a lab in England to conduct three related feeding trials using people to test the toxicity of dichlorvos, a common ingredient in pet collars and pest strips. In a 1992 study in Scotland commissioned by Rhone-Poulenc, the French chemical giant, volunteer subjects were paid to ingest the extremely toxic insecticide aldicarb. 
    Neither US nor UK pesticide guidelines require human studies.

The English Patients, EWG, 1718 Connecticut  Avenue, N.W., Suite 600, Washington DC 20009, Fax +1 202 232-2592 US$8.00. Also available on the Web at www.ewg.org. 

 [This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 41, September 1998, page 17]