What a great deal! The American Chemistry Council, a large trade association of companies manufacturing chemicals, has entered into a partnership with the US EPA to measure how much of pesticides and other chemicals get into kids up to age 3 when homes are sprayed regularly.
Participating parents get $970 over two years, if they consent to “routine spraying,” although apparently “routine” includes “homes with potentially high pesticide use.” EPA’s fact sheet says they’re only going to work with households that already use pesticides. Let’s hope the money doesn’t lure some families in economic trouble into taking risks they wouldn’t have.
The press coverage (Chemical and Engineering News, The Washington Post) doesn’t note if there is separate compensation for health care costs.
Any university-based study would require informed consent by participants. Perhaps toddlers in Florida have already taken short courses in pesticide toxicity.
ACC is putting $2.1M into the funding pool, EPA another $6.9M. With all the recent furor over conflicts of interest at NIH, you’d think that the EPA would want to keep the fox out of the chicken coop.
