Yay LJ -

[kyburg]

Here you go - side by side:

Republican lawmakers plan to reintroduce a bill to suspend the sale of RU-486, the abortion pill, and probe the process surrounding its approval now that three U.S. deaths have been linked to the drug.

11/18/2004: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), led by Bush appointees, is seeking input on a new proposed study in which infants in participating low income families will be monitored for health impacts as they undergo exposure to known toxic chemicals over the course of two years. The study entitled Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) will look at how chemicals can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed by children ranging from babies to 3 years old.

For taking part in these studies, each family will receive $970, a free video camera, a T-shirt, and a framed certificate of appreciation.

Yeah.

I get angry and disgusted at the current administration in a total vacuum. Uh huh.

Comments

[sylvia-says.livejournal.com]

Say WHAT??!!!!

[bluemoonpnw.livejournal.com]

Four more years....
arrrrrrgggg@!!!!

I'm going to go cover my head and scream now.
M

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Experimenting on children? How evil.

What the T-shirt will say

[dwinghy.livejournal.com]

"MY CHILD INHALED TOXIC CHEMICALS FOR THE GOVERNMENT AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT"

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ah...so the plan is to force women to breed, so that their children can then be used as guinea pigs in medical testing. Sounds like the plot of a scary science-fiction novel. Too bad it isn't fiction. :(

I went to the EPA's web site to check out that CHEERS thing.

[camwyn]

From here:

"Why are you looking for participants? -- The purpose of the study is to learn about levels of pesticides and common household chemicals in homes of young children.

Is there any risk to me and my family? -- No. You and your child will not experience any risks from participating in this study.
We will not ask any parent to apply pesticides in their home to be a part of this study. (emphasis mine)
You are not required to change any of your regular household routines. (also emphasis mine)

Why is this important? -- Current information on young children’s exposures to chemicals used in consumer products is very limited.

This study will help the U.S. EPA to better understand:
- how young children are exposed to pesticides and other chemicals from common consumer products
- when these exposures occur
- levels of exposure at home"

From here:

"Q: What if I want to discontinue my participation? Can I stop at any time?

A: Yes. Participation is voluntary and you may stop your participation at any time."

This isn't a case of 'poison the kids over the course of two years and see what happens'. This is a longitudinal baseline study to figure out exactly what kids are being exposed to ALREADY. And they're doing it with low income families not because they're too poor to object, but because it's the freakin' low income families that are already being exposed to the worst of this shit. Hell, the kids in the study are being evaluated repeatedly and regularly multiple times a year- that's probably more times they'll get to see a genuinely concerned doctor than they could ever manage otherwise!

You don't get a proper baseline on lead poisoning and insecticide chalk exposure by parking your statisticians in houses in the Hamptons; you do it by parking them in houses where the kids are turning up loopy from God alone knows what. (Although if you're looking for breast cancer data, you do park the statisticians in the Hamptons- there's been some indicators of risk in wealthy women being tied to frequent exposure to dry cleaning residue.) Unless you know how the current situation stands it is IMPOSSIBLE to get a valid answer on how public health moves change things.

Yes, the current Administration is full of people who make my skin crawl, but in this particular case, I really do have to say: I don't think this is a bad thing. This is an observational case study, NOT an active human experiment. And without this data, we'll have no way of actively gauging how to help similar populations across the rest of the country.

This isn't the Nazis doing things to kids. It's not fucking Tuskeegee. This is a matter of 'we want to see what's happening and you can stop if you get worried or uncomfortable'.

Re: I went to the EPA's web site to check out that CHEERS thing.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods*

However, the study is limited to one place - Duval County, FL, which has (by the study's own documentation) high levels of pesticide use.

The last thing this study is, is double-blind. Where is the control group?

Granted, it's not a "add something to what's existing and see what happens" study - but the sample size looks small, and if they did find siginificant issues related to the children's health, would they report it?

And the reporting looks pretty subjective.

What would make me comfortable with this?

A larger sample, with a control group. (Who uses the least amount of pesticides?)

Examine all the kids in public schools (you'd need permission to do this, just the same as CHEERS is asking for) - examine every age group as well.

That would make me feel better.

Re: I went to the EPA's web site to check out that CHEERS thing.

[journeyrose.livejournal.com]

The question to really ask, is What will they do with the information once they get it?

The EPA sat on the second hand smoke data for abnout 10 years. Some of it you couldn't even FOIA (verb meaning obtain under the Freedom of Information Act).

So...shall we all FOIA this data?