title: Pesticide testing in humans: ethics and public policy.
abstract: Pesticide manufacturers have tested pesticides increasingly in human volunteers over the past decade. The apparent goal of these human studies is to establish threshold levels for symptoms, termed "no observed effect levels." Data from these studies have been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for consideration in standard setting. There are no required ethical guidelines for studies of pesticides toxicity conducted in humans, no governmental oversight is exercised, and no procedures have been put in place for the protection of human subjects. To examine ethical and policy issues involved in the testing of pesticides in humans and the use of human data in standard setting, in February 2002 the Center for Children's Health and the Environment of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine convened an expert workshop for ethicists, physicians, toxicologists, and policy analysts. After a peer consensus process, participants developed a number of ethical and public policy recommendations regarding the testing of pesticides in humans. Participants also strongly encouraged active biomonitoring of every pesticide currently in use to track human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations, and to assess adverse effects on health.
authors.affiliation: Center for Children's Health and the Environment, Box 1043, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustav L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA. christopher.oleskey@mssm.edu
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oleskey
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleischman
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirschhorn
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Landrigan
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lappé
authors.forename: Mary Faith
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Needleman
authors.forename: Rosamond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCally
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure; D035082:Federal Government; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D010575:Pesticides / Q000633:toxicity*; D011640:Public Policy; D012016:Reference Values; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides