PETA Petitions EPA to Pull the Plug on "Brain Dead" Animal Test

PETA Petitions EPA to Pull the Plug on Brain Dead Animal Test

A massive animal-poisoning test being pushed by children's health and environmental advocates as a means of protecting kids from the harmful effects of pesticides is, in reality, doing just the opposite. The results of a developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) test are being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a basis for weakening children's protection from potentially harmful pesticides.

Although the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) requires that children's exposure to pesticide residues be 10 times lower than adult levels, it has a loophole: It allows the EPA to use a different margin of safety "if, on the basis of reliable data, such a margin will be safe for infants and children." So, instead of applying an additional 10-fold "children's health safety factor," the EPA has been relying on data from crude animal tests conducted by pesticide manufacturers to claim that these chemical residues are safe for children at much higher levels.

This means that the EPA is using the results of the DNT and other animal studies as an excuse for providing infants and children with substantially less protection from pesticide risks than the law would allow. For example, in its revised assessment of organophosphate pesticides, the EPA set children's exposure levels only between one and three times lower than adult levels—rather than 10 times lower, which the FQPA allows. This leaves infants and children worse off than they would be if the DNT testing had never been carried out!

In the DNT test, groups of female animals are forced to swallow or inhale a test chemical during their pregnancies and while they nurse their young. Their offspring are then subjected to a variety of crude behavioral tests, after which they are killed and their brains weighed and examined. A single DNT study can kill as many as 2,600 animals. Yet despite this massive body count, the DNT test has never undergone proper scientific validation to determine whether it reliably predicts chemical effects in humans.

In an attempt to rectify this boondoggle brought on by children's health and environmental groups, PETA has filed a legal petition with the EPA, calling on the agency to repeal its test guidelines for DNT studies in favor of full application of the FQPA-mandated 10-fold safety factor. The EPA is required to provide a detailed response to our petition within 90 days, after which we will consider what further legal action may be necessary. Click here to download PETA's petition.

How You Can Help
Please send polite letters to the EPA’s administrator requesting that he support PETA’s rulemaking petition and repeal the agency’s DNT test guidelines:

Stephen L. Johnson
Acting Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Bldg. (1101A)
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, DC 20460
202-501-1450 (fax)
Johnson.Stephen@epa.gov


PETA's DNT Petition Affidavits Exhibits Learning Disabilities Association of America Letter Calling for DNT Testing Natural Resources Defense Council Letter Calling for DNT Testing MeanGreenies.com StopAnimalTests.com Support Our Work	A massive animal-poisoning test being pushed by children's health and environmental advocates as a means of protecting kids from the harmful effects of pesticides is, in reality, doing just the opposite. The results of a developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) test are being used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a basis for weakening children's protection from potentially harmful pesticides. Although the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) requires that children's exposure to pesticide residues be 10 times lower than adult levels, it has a loophole: It allows the EPA to use a different margin of safety "if, on the basis of reliable data, such a margin will be safe for infants and children." So, instead of applying an additional 10-fold "children's health safety factor," the EPA has been relying on data from crude animal tests conducted by pesticide manufacturers to claim that these chemical residues are safe for children at much higher levels. This means that the EPA is using the results of the DNT and other animal studies as an excuse for providing infants and children with substantially less protection from pesticide risks than the law would allow. For example, in its revised assessment of organophosphate pesticides, the EPA set children's exposure levels only between one and three times lower than adult levels—rather than 10 times lower, which the FQPA allows. This leaves infants and children worse off than they would be if the DNT testing had never been carried out! In the DNT test, groups of female animals are forced to swallow or inhale a test chemical during their pregnancies and while they nurse their young. Their offspring are then subjected to a variety of crude behavioral tests, after which they are killed and their brains weighed and examined. A single DNT study can kill as many as 2,600 animals. Yet despite this massive body count, the DNT test has never undergone proper scientific validation to determine whether it reliably predicts chemical effects in humans. In an attempt to rectify this boondoggle brought on by children's health and environmental groups, PETA has filed a legal petition with the EPA, calling on the agency to repeal its test guidelines for DNT studies in favor of full application of the FQPA-mandated 10-fold safety factor. The EPA is required to provide a detailed response to our petition within 90 days, after which we will consider what further legal action may be necessary. Click here to download PETA's petition. How You Can Help Please send polite letters to the EPA’s administrator requesting that he support PETA’s rulemaking petition and repeal the agency’s DNT test guidelines: Stephen L. Johnson Acting Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ariel Rios Bldg. (1101A) 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20460 202-501-1450 (fax) Johnson.Stephen@epa.gov