Human guinea pigs Dan Tarlock, law professor and wit, once said that one of the greatest contributions of the environmental movement was that we had discovered that rats could die for our sins. It looks like we will have to die for our own sins now. Pesticide makers are trying to reduce the time it will take to meet the stringent requirements in the Food Quality Protection Act that protect children by testing pesticides directly on humans. Avoidance of regulation for toxic chemicals. The constituents most likely to be harmed by NOT regulating organophosphates are children, our most vulnerable population.
Corporations get the benefit of scientific uncertainty, rather than the children.
Science is used to delay regulation rather than search for alternatives. Besides, Dr. Chuck Benbrook, internationally recognized pesticide and integrated pest management consultant has indicated that alternatives to the most toxic organophosphates already exist. Those alternatives would benefit the public, farmers and children, but they wouldn't benefit pesticide manufacturers. The Dioxin Reassessment raises similar issues. In 1991, EPA began the second dioxin reassessment at the urging of the Chlorine Institute and the paper industry, since they believed that new information would prove dioxin less harmful than originally determined.