One day last week – Wednesday, February 18 – 60 leading scientists issued a joint statement accusing the Bush administration of repeatedly distorting scientific information and abusing the scientific process to further its political goals.
The next day – Thursday, February 19 – a scientific panel assembled by the Bush administration announced that it is ethically acceptable to deliberately feed poisons to humans with the goal of relaxing federal regulations on chemical manufacturers and giant agribusiness conglomerates.
On Wednesday, the statement by the 60 prominent scientists accompanied the release of a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report included 37 pages of examples in which George W. Bush’s political appointees consistently overruled governmental experts to produce politically desirable results or to bury truths the White House found inconvenient.
On Thursday, the National Academy of Science panel ruled it is ethical to feed doses of pesticides to humans in laboratory tests to determine exactly how much pesticide a person can ingest before becoming ill. The practice of feeding pesticides to humans for this purpose has long been advocated by the pesticide industry. In fact, the pesticide industry has already conducted studies in which humans have been dosed with pesticides. The difference is that now the federal government is allowed to consider the results of these human experiments when drafting regulations; regulations that are, ostensibly, for our protection.
Signers of Wednesday’s statement criticizing the Bush administration’s abuse of science included 12 Nobel laureates, 11 winners of the National Medal of Science and two former presidential science advisors.
The panel which produced Thursday’s report greenlighting human experimentation includes James Bruckner, a professor from the University of Georgia, who has been accused of conflict of interest because one of the corporations from which he collects fees – Lockheed Martin – paid for a study in which humans were deliberately exposed to toxic chemicals.
On Wednesday, the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists said the Bush White House had on multiple occasions misrepresented, changed or outright killed reports showing the clear link between the combustion of fossil fuels and global warming. A study on human health and environmental impacts of mercury emissions from power plants was changed to suit the dictates of the utilities. Another study compared a Congressional clean air bill with a Bush administration clean air bill and found the Congressional bill would result in cleaner air for the same price as the Bush bill. That study was buried.
On Thursday, the National Academy of Science’s so-called ethics panel ruled that not only is it acceptable to feed doses of pesticides to adult human volunteers, but it is ethically acceptable to dose children. Perhaps this is what George Bush really means when he says, “No Child Left Behind.” Members of the ethics panel were quick to point out that while their opinion allows for human experimentation on children, they could not imagine that such tests would actually be conducted. These ethicists not only have poor imaginations, they also have a poor grasp of the available literature on the subject.
One might think one would have to dig back to World War II to find studies concerning human experimentation with agricultural chemicals and children, but one would be wrong. In 1969, two Italian studies recorded the deliberate exposure of newborn infants to pesticides to gauge the effects. In 2000, the Amvac Chemical Corporation of Newport Beach, California petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to consider the Italian studies, in order to relax pesticide regulation. Now, thanks to the fine work of the scientific ethics panel appointed by the Bush administration, the EPA can do just that.
Day In and Day Out
One day last week – Wednesday, February 18 – 60 leading scientists issued a joint statement accusing the Bush administration of repeatedly distorting scientific information and abusing the scientific process to further its political goals.
The next day – Thursday, February 19 – a scientific panel assembled by the Bush administration announced that it is ethically acceptable to deliberately feed poisons to humans with the goal of relaxing federal regulations on chemical manufacturers and giant agribusiness conglomerates.
On Wednesday, the statement by the 60 prominent scientists accompanied the release of a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report included 37 pages of examples in which George W. Bush’s political appointees consistently overruled governmental experts to produce politically desirable results or to bury truths the White House found inconvenient.
On Thursday, the National Academy of Science panel ruled it is ethical to feed doses of pesticides to humans in laboratory tests to determine exactly how much pesticide a person can ingest before becoming ill. The practice of feeding pesticides to humans for this purpose has long been advocated by the pesticide industry. In fact, the pesticide industry has already conducted studies in which humans have been dosed with pesticides. The difference is that now the federal government is allowed to consider the results of these human experiments when drafting regulations; regulations that are, ostensibly, for our protection.
Signers of Wednesday’s statement criticizing the Bush administration’s abuse of science included 12 Nobel laureates, 11 winners of the National Medal of Science and two former presidential science advisors.
The panel which produced Thursday’s report greenlighting human experimentation includes James Bruckner, a professor from the University of Georgia, who has been accused of conflict of interest because one of the corporations from which he collects fees – Lockheed Martin – paid for a study in which humans were deliberately exposed to toxic chemicals.
On Wednesday, the report by the Union of Concerned Scientists said the Bush White House had on multiple occasions misrepresented, changed or outright killed reports showing the clear link between the combustion of fossil fuels and global warming. A study on human health and environmental impacts of mercury emissions from power plants was changed to suit the dictates of the utilities. Another study compared a Congressional clean air bill with a Bush administration clean air bill and found the Congressional bill would result in cleaner air for the same price as the Bush bill. That study was buried.
On Thursday, the National Academy of Science’s so-called ethics panel ruled that not only is it acceptable to feed doses of pesticides to adult human volunteers, but it is ethically acceptable to dose children. Perhaps this is what George Bush really means when he says, “No Child Left Behind.” Members of the ethics panel were quick to point out that while their opinion allows for human experimentation on children, they could not imagine that such tests would actually be conducted. These ethicists not only have poor imaginations, they also have a poor grasp of the available literature on the subject.
One might think one would have to dig back to World War II to find studies concerning human experimentation with agricultural chemicals and children, but one would be wrong. In 1969, two Italian studies recorded the deliberate exposure of newborn infants to pesticides to gauge the effects. In 2000, the Amvac Chemical Corporation of Newport Beach, California petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to consider the Italian studies, in order to relax pesticide regulation. Now, thanks to the fine work of the scientific ethics panel appointed by the Bush administration, the EPA can do just that.
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004