“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to Highlight Pesticide Testing on Humans

From Panna.org

On Tuesday, February 6th, NBC will air “Loophole,” an episode on the crime drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” that focuses on the controversial EPA rule allowing intentional dosing of human beings in pesticide experiments. Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles (PSR-LA) and Pesticide Action Network Nor th America (PANNA) are calling for the public to contact NBC to support this type of programming.

In the episode, several children and their families —including a Honduran immigrant family — are unwittingly tested with a dangerous organophosphate pesticide (a class of acutely toxic chemicals) by a fictional chemical company. In real life, EPA’s human testing rule contains loopholes that allow chemical corporations to test pesticides on women and children. A 2005 Congressional report written by Senator Barbara Boxer’s and Congressmember Henry Waxman’s staff revealed human testing studies where pesticide corporations told their subjects they were ingesting vitamins or drugs. No study of the well-documented long term effects of pesticide exposures were conducted in follow-up of those test subjects.

“Loophole” reminds the public of EPA’s all too real life “CHEERS” program, where the federal government proposed in 2004 to offer low income families in Florida $970, a camcorder, and some clothes if they would record “routine exposure” of their one and under infants to household pesticides. The script is careful to point out the opposition of EPA staff scientists to the human testing rule made by EPA political appointees.

Neal Baer, MD is known for incorporating scientifically accurate information on his show to educate the public on important issues.

“It is so important and valuable for the people who are victimized by this kind of bad corporate behavior shown in “Loophole” to be able to understand how they can fall prey to intentional human dosing studies. I think ‘Law & Order’ has done a great job of raising public awareness,” declared Martha Arguello, Director of the Health and Environment Programs at Physicians for Social Responsibility Los Angeles who consulted on the story.

Dr. Margaret Reeves, senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America was pleasantly surprised at the scientific accuracy. “Even though they created a fictional pesticide for the episode, it very much demonstrated the harmful health effects we see with organophosphate pesticides.” Reeves heads up a campaign to ban organophosphates. PANNA has partnered with EarthJustice and the Natural Resource Defense Council to sue EPA over the human testing rule.

Reeves and Arguello are calling upon the public to write to NBC to thank them for this show and to support more of this kind of socially responsible programming.