Who knows what will pass in the last days of this Congressional Session. One set of bills to keep on eye on are H.R. 1592 and S. 1464. These bills (called the Regulatory Openness and Fairness Act of 1999) were drafted by the pesticide and corporate farming industries and completely undermines the Food Quality Protection Act passed in 1996. * It restricts EPA's ability to assess the cumulative effect of different pesticide exposures on children and places limits on EPA's use of computer modeling. * It eliminates the safety standard for children and pesticide exposure recommended in a National Academy of Sciences report. * It reverses the burden of proof and allows new chemicals to be marketed unless EPA proves them unsafe. What is even more outrageous is that a number of Washington members of Congress have co-sponsored this legislation including the usual suspects of Rep. Jack Metcalf, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, Rep. George Nethercutt, Rep. Doc. Hastings and Senator Slade Gorton, but also including Rep. Norm Dicks and Rep. Adam Smith. It just shows the power of the pesticide industry when they are willing to put our children at risk along with the rest of us. |
