The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) reports that altered language in a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation will allow pesticide and chemical companies to conduct experiments on aborted human fetuses. PEER claims that such testing will aid the companies in influencing the government to relax federal regulations limiting the allowable dosage levels of their products.

The regulation originally proposed by the EPA would have banned the intentional exposure of a “pregnant woman, fetus, or newborn” to products being tested. However, EPA’ Final Rule, announced on January 26, 2006, EPA altered the language to forbid intentional exposure of human subjects who are “pregnant women or children.” The final wording, suggests PEER would allow for testing on a fetus or fetal tissue no longer within the pregnant woman. The final wording, notes PEER was never subject to public review.

“Under EPA’s rule, chemical companies could conduct experiments to justify pesticide exposures that biochemical companies could not perform to develop new lifesaving medicines,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch in this press release. “Unfortunately, under the current administration, EPA has earned a reputation for blindly adopting language supplied by corporate lawyer-lobbyists.” [Read more…]

Also See:
Federal Regulations: Laws Behind the Acts
Laws and Regulations: A Primer