It's a good idea someone at the EPA came to their senses and suspended a controversial study in Florida aimed at exploring how infants and toddlers absorb pesticides and other household chemicals.
Several rank-and-file scientists within the agency questioned the ethics of the two-year experiment, which would have given families of 60 children in Duval County about $1,000, as well as a camcorder and children's clothing, in exchange for having their kids participate.
Total insanity!
Critics were worried low-income Floridians might continue to use pesticides, linked to neurological damage in children, in their homes to qualify for the project. Environmentalists had also criticized the study because the industry-funded American Chemistry Council had agreed to pay about 20 percent of the project's $9 million price tag.
A representative of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said it best: "Regardless of the number of reviews, paying poor parents to dose their babies with commercial poisons to measure their exposure is just plain wrong." Still, administration and industry officials said it was important to pursue the study to give regulators better information on how harmful chemicals get into children's bodies.
Would you accept money in advance for an experiment, if you knew it would ruin your child's health?
Washington Post November 10, 2004