Kids, rat poison corps. and the EPA - guess who loses

[donsu]

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/01/01_404.html

When rat poison manufacturers complained about regulations, the EPA rolled over.

-snip-

The grotesque death was not unique: Between 2001 and 2003, the AAPCC reported nearly 60,000 cases nationwide of poisonings by rodenticides, more than for any other pesticide. Roughly 250 of those exposures each year resulted in serious outcomes, including deaths. And the deaths were horrific: Rat poisons kill by anticoagulation -- they disrupt normal clotting until blood vessels in effect explode.

Many of these incidents involve children because the poisons often come in the form of pellets that are placed as bait on the floor. “Kids will put everything into their mouths,” says Dr. Alan H. Lockwood, a professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo and an expert on pesticides. “These agents are very dangerous.” And they’re available over the counter to anyone. Not surprisingly, many poison experts, national medical groups, and consumer advocacy organizations believe rat poisons should be regulated -- with, for instance, the most powerful poisons restricted solely to industrial users. Aaron Colangelo, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), points out that tighter regulations would most benefit poor children. “It’s a demographic issue, too,” he says. “Statistics show is more of a risk for kids living below the poverty line, because there are more rats in these communities, and public housing managers are more careless with the poisons.”

Nevertheless, the Environmental Protection Agency has done little to prevent these disasters. In fact, over the past four years the EPA has allowed the agricultural services and products industry -- which, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, has contributed nearly $15 million to GOP candidates since 2000 -- to crush any chance at regulation.
-snip-
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after the rat poison lobby got the EPA to conform to their wants it wasn't enough so the EPA conformed some more until this:

"But apparently, even the weaker EPA assessment was unacceptable to the rodenticide task force. Instead, the organization issued yet another industry-friendly study on the effects of rat poisons. Drafts of this new RRTF study circulated within the EPA, but environmental groups and consumer advocates were prevented from seeing it. When Bright asked for a copy, she was told it contained “confidential business information.”


america - the country that tortures

[Solly Mack]

1. Perhaps if we involved a fetus somehow?

[MountainLaurel]

3. Wouldn't make a difference

Look at issues like lead, industrial pollutants, and other fetus poisons found in the water system or in the air -- no outcry from the Reich over that. As long as corporate profits are at stake, Americans (even unborn ones) are going to lose out every time.

[Solly Mack]

4. Ah, yes. The bottomline even trumps a fetus

imagine that.

[gollygee]

2. Born children are not a priority for this administration

ITA with the post above mine - find a connection to fetuses and maybe they'd consider it differently.

How can they call themselves pro-life with policies like this.