January, 25 2011, 02:56pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Jan Hasselman, Earthjustice, (206) 343-7340, ext. 25
Suzanne Struglinski, NRDC, (202) 289-2387
EPA Proposes Stronger Protections for People in Pesticide Experiments
Rule barring unethical research moves closer to completion
WASHINGTON
It will be harder for the chemical industry to use people as test
subjects in pesticide research sent to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, based on an expanded "human testing rule."
EPA has proposed dramatic changes in how studies that intentionally
expose people to pesticides can be conducted and in what studies it will
accept. These proposed changes should force the chemical industry to
avoid these types of studies altogether.
The proposed rule, now open for a 60-day public comment period,
results from a 2010 court settlement between the agency, the Natural
Resources Defense Council and other public health and farmworker
advocacy groups represented by NRDC and Earthjustice. The lawsuit was
filed to prohibit EPA's reliance on these unethical experiments that
often led to weakened pesticide safety standards.
"With this new proposal, EPA has cut the incentive for pesticide
manufacturers to conduct unethical, and often unscientific, human
experiments," said NRDC Senior Attorney Michael Wall. "While it does not
ban human testing outright, it sets the bar high enough that studies on
people should not be an attractive option as evidence submitted to EPA.
We don't want to see anyone getting paid to dose themselves with toxic
pesticides, but if EPA is going to continue to consider studies that use
humans when it regulates pesticides, the research needs to adhere to
these stricter rules," Wall said.
The existing human testing rule, in place since 2006, allows parents
or other authority figures to allow pesticide testing on their children
in some circumstances. The proposed rule closes that loophole. The
existing rule also only applies to pesticide studies conducted with the
intention of being submitted to EPA. With today's proposal, the human
testing rule will apply to all studies EPA reviews, whether or not the
researchers intended for the study to go to EPA.
The new standards are drawn from National Academy of Sciences
recommendations and the Nuremberg Code. Under these new standards, EPA
expects the number of such experiments to fall dramatically.
Background:
In 2006, EPA lifted a moratorium on its use of experiments in which
people are purposely dosed with pesticides to assess toxic effects. In
some studies, public records show that researchers paid people to eat or
drink pesticides, to enter pesticide vapor "chambers," or to have
pesticides sprayed into their eyes or rubbed onto their skin. The
pesticide industry submitted results of such tests to EPA to use as part
of its review on pesticide safety.
"Some of the worst scientific reports I have read are these
industry-funded pesticide studies where no more than a handful of adults
are dosed with a toxic pesticide, and then the companies try to argue
away complaints of headaches, nausea, and even vomiting," said NRDC
Senior Scientist Jennifer Sass. "In one experiment, the people tested
were even told that the chemical was a medicine instead of a pesticide."
A coalition of health and environmental advocates, and farmworker
protection groups filed the lawsuit against EPA in 2006, claiming that
its rule violated a law requiring strict ethical and scientific
protections for pesticide testing on humans.
The coalition argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit that the rule ignored scientific criteria proposed by the
National Academy of Sciences, did not prohibit testing on pregnant women
and children, and even violated the Nuremberg Code, including the
requirement of fully informed consent. The Nuremberg Code is a set of
standards governing medical experiments on humans that was put in place
after World War II, following criminal medical experiments performed by
Nazi doctors.
The 2006 lawsuit was brought by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee,
Migrant Clinicians Network, NRDC, Pesticide Action Network North
America, United Farm Workers, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste
(Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United) and the San Francisco
Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility. Attorneys with NRDC,
Earthjustice and Farmworker Justice served as legal counsel for the
coalition.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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Grand Jury Indicts Top Trump Aides, 11 Arizona Republicans Over 'Fake Electors' Scheme
Had it succeeded, said the state's attorney general, the scheme would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
Apr 25, 2024
A grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday charged seven aides to Donald Trump and nearly a dozen Republican officials over a "fake electors" scheme in the state that aimed to keep the former president in power after his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump, who is currently facing nearly 90 charges across four criminal cases as he runs for another White House term, was described as "unindicted co-conspirator 1" in the 58-page indictment, which was announced by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
"The people of Arizona elected President Biden," Mayes, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for."
The indictment names former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, sitting state Republican Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon, and seven others as the "fake electors" who sought to declare Trump the rightful winner of the state's presidential contest.
The names of other individuals indicted by the state grand jury are redacted, but the document's descriptions make clear that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and top Trump legal strategist Boris Epshteyn are among those facing felony charges—including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
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"It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless," said Mayes.
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
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The Arizona Republicreported Wednesday that "several of the Arizona electors have previously claimed they were merely offering Congress a backup plan, though nothing in the documents they sent to Congress and the National Archives backs up that assertion."
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Jenny Guzman, director of Common Cause's Arizona program, said the indictment "marks the start of a new chapter for the fake elector scheme that has plagued Arizona."
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A campaign finance watchdog on Wednesday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, affiliated political groups, and an accounting firm of violating U.S. law in a scheme "seemingly designed to obscure the true recipients of a noteworthy portion of Trump's legal bills."
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"Voters have a right to know how the presidential campaigns and other committees supporting presidential candidates spend their money."
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According to CLC:
Red Curve is a domestic limited liability company that offers compliance and FEC reporting services but does not appear to offer any legal services. It is managed by Bradley Crate, who also serves as the treasurer for each of the five Trump-affiliated committees concerned in this complaint, as well as over 200 other federal committees.
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Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee—faces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
The new CLC filing comes a day after the watchdog filed separate FEC complaints urging investigations into a pair of Trump-affiliated "scam PACs," which "pretend to fundraise for major candidates or issues while secretly diverting almost all of their donors' money back into fundraising or the fraudsters' own pockets."
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The 32-28 vote on House Bill 2677—with GOP Reps. Tim Dunn (25), Matt Gress (4), and Justin Wilmeth (2) voting in favor—was the third attempt in as many weeks to pass repeal legislation since the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the ban.
"The state Senate could vote on the repeal as early as next Wednesday, after the bill comes on the floor for a 'third reading,' as is required under chamber rules," according toNBC News. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Wednesday toldThe Washington Post that "I am hopeful the Senate does the right thing and sends it to my desk so I can sign it."
Applauding the House passage of H.B. 2677, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona president and CEO Angela Florez said that "today, Arizona is one step closer to repealing the state's Civil War-era total abortion ban. While the repeal still must pass the Senate, this is a major win for reproductive freedom."
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Florez noted that "even with the repeal of the Civil War-era ban, the state will still have a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that denies people access to critical care. And lawmakers continue to attack Arizonans' ability to access reproductive healthcare. Our right to control our bodies and lives is hanging on by a thread."
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