A
number of chemical pesticide manufacturers have been using human subjects in
their pesticide studies. They are using humans to discover the exposure levels
and the effects that these chemicals have on agribusiness workers. These
studies are being presented to the EPA without their prior knowledge. They
should not be performed without a complete review of poison control centers.
This kind of testing is unethical and can be very dangerous to the subjects.
Using humans to ascertain the risk and toxicity levels of a chemical does not
benefit the environment or existing environmental regulations.
The organizations that perform these
studies recruit people who have an extremely low income. This ensures the
organizations that the people will be willing to subject their bodies to the
levels of risk that are reached during these experiments. These people are paid
based on time spent and not the level of risk that is initiated. The results
from these experiments are supposed to remain unpublished and confidential to
the company. Another company would then duplicate the experiment and compare
results. This procedure has not been followed recently and raises ethical
concerns.
The agricultural workers and their
families can benefit from these experiments; however, the humans that are being
tested reap no direct benefit from the experiments. Ultimately, these types of
studies should only be allowed when no alternatives are available.
This truly is a serious ethical issue, the fact that people are being tested on and those who are less fortunate are being taken advantage of truly strikes concern. The main concern is that the results are being kept confidential, which means that the government or anyone who has authority is not sure what is going on in these companies and what they are testing.
ReplyDelete