Pesticide Industry Attempts to Hijack Conference to Educate Health Care Providers

A series of letters on a government website has recently come to light showing that EPA is letting the pesticide industry call the shots regarding the content of the upcoming conference of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF). The NEETF, chartered by Congress in 1990, is an organization formed to develop and support environmental learning programs to meet social goals, such as improved health, better education, and "greener," more profitable business.

After the conference agenda was announced, CropLife and Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE), two chemical industry trade groups with a record of fighting steps to protect the public from pesticides, sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking that three respected physicians be removed from the conference program. Steven Johnson, Assistant Administrator for EPA's Pesticide Program and former Monsanto executive, responded, stating that he shared their concerns and that the conference would be postponed and restructured.

The three physicians are Dr. Richard Jackson, the senior environmental health official at the Centers for Disease Control; Dr. Philip Landrigan, who served as Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on pesticides and children; and, Dr. Lynn Goldman, former head of the Office of Pesticide Programs at EPA.

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/news/daily_news_archive/2003/01_10_03.htm

http://ilma.enewspress.com/news/default.asp?AID=280&iid=39&sitebannerid=&stylesheetid= (note the last statement in the article)