Stop EPA from Testing Pesticides on Children

To:  Mike Leavitt, EPA Administrator and other EPA officials

We the undersigned urge you to immediately cancel the EPA’s proposed Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) in Duval County, Florida. Incredibly, this pesticide industry-funded study would use infants and children as guinea pigs for pesticide testing. While we were glad to learn of EPA’s recent decision to “postpone” this misguided effort, we now call upon you to permanently abandon this project.

Scientific evidence already indicates, for example, that the risk of childhood leukemia is from 9 to 11.4 times greater for children who live in homes where pesticides are applied, compared to those living where no home and garden pesticides were applied. Another study found that home use of insecticide foggers results in a 10.8 times higher risk of brain tumors in children. Yet another found that children with early persistent asthma were ten times more likely to have been exposed to herbicides and insecticides before the end of their first year.

A genuine public health approach – as well as common sense – tells us that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” At the very least, this means that EPA should not be dangling cash prizes, camcorders and commemorative baby bibs to persuade parents to expose their children to harmful chemicals, especially in low-income families like those targeted in the Florida plan.

We the undersigned call on EPA to:

1. Permanently cancel the CHEERS study;
2. Either return the industry-provided funding, or redirect it to pesticide exposure prevention efforts; and
3. Refocus on its duty to ensure a safe and healthy environment for children.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Stop EPA from Testing Pesticides on Children Petition to Mike Leavitt, EPA Administrator and other EPA officials was created by Pesticide Action Network and written by Kelly Campbell (panalert@panna.org).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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