HELIOLITH

*(If you live in Duval County, Florida). Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the serious risks associated with common over-the-counter pesticides. It seems that society has regressed from the environmental consciousness catalyzed in 1962 when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring. Roundup is common enough to be a household name, and household insecticides are routinely applied with little concern for, or awareness of their possible toxicities.

The EPA plans to accept $2.1 million from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) to better understand the relationship between household pesticides and children’s health. Unfortunately, they are approaching the problem from an extremely unethical angle. The EPA is offering low-income residents of Florida’s Duval County money, camcorders, and prizes for participating in a study on their children’s pesticide exposure. Pesticide Action Network (PAN) is campaigning for a complete end to this tragically flawed campaign. In their succinct summary of the extreme hazards inherent to this proposed study they remind us that:
(keep reading)

…children in homes where home and garden pesticides are used are more likely to develop serious diseases, including asthma and childhood cancers. A recent study reports children with early persistent asthma were 10 times more likely to have been exposed to herbicides and insecticides in their first year. Children under five who live in homes where pesticides are applied may face a risk of childhood leukemia 11 times greater than those who live where no pesticides are applied. Home use of insecticide foggers has been associated with a risk of brain tumors in children that is more than 10 times higher.

The list goes on and on. *The EPA’s site claims that, “You and your child will not experience any risks from participating in this study,” but PAN counters by stating the obvious,

…the offering of prizes may encourage families unaccustomed to using pesticides in the home to change their habits to become eligible. [especially if families are uninformed of the real risks of such choices!] The clinics and hospitals selected as recruitment sites in Duval County predominantly serve low-income communities and serve a greater proportion of African Americans than the rest of the county, thus the children from low income communities of color are likely to bear the greatest risks in this EPA-led study.

This is the same Duval County that became infamous for potentially systematic disenfranchisement of African-Americans in the 2000 presidential election. One of the first steps after Bush took office after his rise to power in 2000 was to massively cut EPA funding. Now the same agency is bent over backward, attempting to fulfill congressional mandates by accepting money from one of the very industries it is supposed to be regulating to “study” toxins in the home. This is really several steps beyond environmental racism. Reading this, I was quickly reminded of the history of the horrible Syphilis Study in Tuskegee, Alabama, but the analogy is ultimately a poor one.

In this case the children are not dying of an acute disease, and if they do die later in life because of childhood exposure, there will likely be no verifiable link to the guilty parties. Voter intimidation is a federal crime, but bribing poor families (from the same community!) that you are simultaneously depriving of social services, so they might “report” to you their (increasing?) use of poisons around their children is truly reprehensible.

If you are so inclined, please
sign the petition to end this program now or read more via PAN first.

(note: the thumbnail image of the girl at top is a link to a page where the EPA defends the health rights of children. I repost it here to underscore the betrayal and hypocrisy of this program the EPA is about to undertake. Photo credit: to Stephen Delaney, I assert in all children’s honor, this reposting is fair use.)