WASHINGTON (CN) - Pregnant women will not be allowed to participate in third-party pesticide testing submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency, according new rules proposed by the agency as apart of a settlement agreement reached with environmental and other advocacy groups in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
In October, the agency announced that it would no longer allow legal guardians to provide consent for their wards who could not consent on their own. The proposed rule expands this principal by dropping any language that would imply guardians, including pregnant women, could give consent to participate in third party pesticide testing for a child or a fetus.
The agency does not allow human testing in research it conducts (first party testing) or supports (second party testing). However, it has allowed limited testing by third parties, but does not consider the value of such testing when making recommendations about pesticide use.
In addition, the agency proposes to adopt a new definition of pesticides "as a substance or mixture of substances intended for pesticidal effect," which means that even substances that are not registered pesticides will be subject to regulatory review by the agency.
The change in definition is so the agency may expand its regulatory review on human testing.
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