Support the Boxer-Snow-Clinton-Collins Pesticide Testing Amendment

Senator Barbara Boxer has introduced an amendment to stop testing of pesticides on humans until the EPA develops strict ethical guidelines for said testing, and she is asking for people to urge their senators to support the amendment. The vote in the Senate occurs at noon EDT today, so get your feedback in soon; Senator Boxer even has a form letter you can use. Here's her statement on the need for the amendment:

In violation of routine ethical standards, the Bush Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is using studies that deliberately expose humans to dangerous pesticides to decide whether those pesticides should be legal.

This decision flies in the face of scientific practice and the sound policies of past Republican and Democratic EPA administrators including Carol Browner and Christie Todd Whitman.

A recent Congressional report commissioned by Rep. Henry Waxman and me found "serious and widespread deficiencies" in these studies. Moreover, it concluded that the "experiments appear to have inflicted harm on human subjects, failed to obtain informed consent, dismissed adverse outcomes, and lacked scientific validity."

[via Democratic Underground]