No Shame -- No Pride

San Francisco -- In 1972 when Americans discovered that for 40 years the U.S. government had been secretly experimenting with African-American patients in Tuskegee who were allowed to suffer from untreated syphilis, the nation was shamed and shocked. And we vowed: never again.

Sadly, we have so lost our pride as a nation that we have apparently also lost our ability to feel shame. The Environmental Protection Agency has just been exposed for  treating lawns and vacant lots next to schools in poor, black neighborhoods with sewage sludge to find out whether it might bind to lead in the soil from chipped paint and car exhausts and ultimately reduce the risk to the children in these neighborhoods.

The families were assured that the sludge was safe -- something no one knows. And the ingredients that the EPA hoped would bind to the lead were phosphate and iron, both of which could have been applied much more safely as pure ingredients, not by spreading sludge which has lots of other toxic chemicals in it. More fundamentally, apparently EPA knew there was a health risk to these children -- but it used that risk as an excuse for an experiment instead of a cleanup.

That's not only bad ethics, it's bad science. And if the EPA wanted to do this experiment, it could obviously have found a location where children wouldn't be exposed -- perhaps at one of its laboratory sites. It's clear what the real agenda was -- find an excuse to start spreading sludge on the landscape, something the EPA has wanted to do for decades. And the poor kids were just experimental subjects.

Congress is holding hearings on how this happened -- but they need to look deep. The EPA's efforts to find plausible ways to dispose of sewage sludge go back before the Bush Administration, so on this topic there's no guarantee that having a new president will mean restoring the agency's original mission -- environmental and public health protection.

Comments

[Eric V.]

PETA EXPOSES AL GORE THE FRAUD

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/offset_gore

[Supercitizen]

This is horrifying!

I wonder why I am only reading it here on Carl's blog and not in the headlines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sure the Club is doing its best to get this in the news--too bad the media is only interested in the latest Clinton/Obama spat.

For shame.

Thanks, Carl, for at least putting it out there--maybe ten more people will know the truth now...

[PROUD TREE HUGGER]

How many club members still eat meat despite the UN report. If so you are part of the problem and not doing ALL you can do. Please change your habits before you start telling others to do the same. Are you still eating meat Mr. Pope? I hope not.

[Carl Pope]

I am posting this "correction" at the request of those who sent it to me -- but it completely misses the point. First, the question of whether this composed sludge IS actually safe remains in substantial uncertainly. But more important, if EPA knows that these neighborhoods are at risk from elevated lead, why aren't we doing something about it? And why, instead of doing a rigorous scientific test of the ingredients we think might bond with the lead -- like iron -- in a proper scientific context, are we just spreading a mixture which has many, many ingredients clearly irrelevant for lead abatement, and why is this testing being done in poor neighborhoods instead of in a proper research facility?--Carl Pope

Dear Mr. Pope,
I am writing with concern about your story, "No Shame -- No Pride." Included in your article are inaccuracies that have surrounded the story and continue to circulate. Please follow the link below to view a Q&A that should answer any questions and provide clarification on points made in the story.

Bryan Stark
Elise Babbitt Welker
Communications Manager
Kennedy Krieger Institute
www.kennedykrieger.org

http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_news.jsp?pid=7062

[PROUD TREE HUGGER]

IF YOU ARE STILL EATING MEAT YOU ARE "MISSING THE POINT"