WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed banning pesticide testing on pregnant women and children. The move followed criticism that the government's reliance on human pesticide tests has irresponsibly endangered vulnerable people.
"We're going to prohibit certain kinds of intentional dosing, and for that which is not prohibited we're going to put in place strict ethical guidelines," Jim Jones, director of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, said in an interview.
The rule is subject to a 90-day public comment period, and the agency aims to implement it by Jan. 29.
It categorically prohibits pesticide testing studies, conducted with or without federal government sponsorship, that involve intentionally dosing pregnant women or children. The EPA would be prohibited from relying on any data from such tests, even if they were conducted before the rule took effect.
The rule requires people conducting other human testing to submit protocols to the EPA for review, and says that subjects of pesticide tests must consent to risks.
Critics, however, said the proposed regulation, the agency's first aimed at human pesticide testing conducted with or without government funding, contains too many loopholes.
Among them: not banning the use of data from unintentional or everyday exposure of pregnant women and children to pesticides.