PICKET: EPA told human test subjects – 'there's a possibility you may die from this'

Steven Milloy's lawsuit against the EPA has gone forward into federal court. As I wrote in a previous post, Milloy, a biostatistician and securities lawyer who runs the site junkscience.com, is suing the Environmental Protection Agency overwhat he discovered through evidence from a Freedom of Information Act request.

Milloy found that "disturbing experiments" conducted for the EPA "are exposing humans to inhalable particulates" that the agency has said are deadly, theNational Legal and Policy Center noted.

Senator Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and ranking member of the Environmental Public Works Committee, is calling for a hearing to investigate this matter further.

According to Milloy, the EPA declared to a federal court that it asks human guinea pigs to risk their lives for regulatory purposes at $12 per hour.:

EPA responded (Thursday) to our emergency motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its ongoing human experiment (called CAPTAIN) involving the air pollutant known as PM2.5.

In the declaration of Martin W. Case, the EPA clinical research studies coordinator for CAPTAIN, Case claims he verbally warns study subjects before the experiment as follows:

My first approach after being introduced to the subject by the medical station staff is to ask the subject if they have read the consent form. The subjects for CAPTAIN have been given the informed study consent form on a previous visit, and, they are also given the same consent to read again if they have not read the consent the day of the training

I provide participants with information about fine particles (PM2.s). I say that PM2.s are particles so small that they are able past through your airways and go deep into your lungs, these particles are so small that your usual lining and cilia of your airways are not able to prevent these particles from passing into your lungs, Therefore, if you are a person that for example lives in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, and its been a very hot day, and you can see the haze in the air, and you happen to be someone that works outside, and if you have an underlying unknown health condition, or, you may be older in age; the chances are that you could end up in the emergency room later on that night, wondering whats wrong, possibly having cardiac changes that could lead to a heart attack; there is the possibility you may die from this

Heres the analysis of Cases remarkable admission that is, if we can even rely on Cases declaration:

Prohibition on human sacrifice. Every law, regulation and code developed since World War II strictly prohibits human sacrifice (i.e.,significant injury or death) for no health benefit to the patient (the wage of $12 per hour does not count as a benefit). EPA employee Case explicitly admits in this declaration that short-term exposure to PM2.5can be lethal.And though Case attempts to distance this warning from the experiment by explaining the risk in terms of a person living in a large city like Los Angeles or New York, EPA states in its IRB application for approval of CAPTAIN, The particle burden, on a mass basis presented to the volunteer will not exceed an exposure an individual receives over a 24 hour period while visiting a typical urban center in America on a smoggy day. Moreover, EPA has repeatedly stated in numerous regulatory documents and public statements that there is no safe level of exposure to PM2.5 and that any exposure to PM2.5 can kill within hours or days.

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PICKET: EPA told human test subjects - 'there's a possibility you may die from this'