Bond Supports Testing Pesticides on Children

Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment (proposed by Sen. Boxer, D-CA) by a wide margin (60-37) prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency from testing pesticides on humans. One Missouri senator voted for the amendment. The other voted against it.

The EPA has been promising families some cash in order to carry out experiments, often on kids and often in low-income neighborhoods. Take this one example:

The tests include a 2002-04 study by University of California-San Diego in which chloropicrin, an insecticide that during World War I was a chemical warfare agent, was administered to 127 young adults in doses that exceeded federal safety limits by 12 times.

In 1998, Bill Clinton imposed a moratorium on using human testing for pesticide approvals. The Bush administration lifted that moratorium, allowing political appointees to referee on a case-by-case basis any ethical disputes over human testing.

Boxer's amendment would block the EPA from using data taken from human testing and bar the agency from conducting such testing. Thirty-seven senators, all Republicans, voted against the proposal. Sen. Kit Bond is among that number. Sen. Jim Talent, on the other hand, voted for the amendment.

(The House passed an amendment with the exact same wording by a voice vote on May 19th. So there's no record as to how any of Missouri's representatives voted.)

Why does Sen. Bond want pesticides to be tested on children?