Students Paid to Drink Pesticide

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Tuesday, 14 January 2003

One of the worlds biggest chemical companies faces an inquiry after it was found to have used students to test a highly hazardous pesticide linked to serious disorders.

Bayer CropScience, of Mannheim, Germany, paid the students, mostly from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, £450 each to consume the pesticide.

The project, the fine detail of which is secret, has been condemned in the United States as unscientific and unethical. Experts are worried that cash-strapped students are vulnerable targets for researchers.

Lawyers point out that the Nuremberg Code, formulated after the Nazis wartime experiments, bans the use of humans for testing poisonous substances where the risk exceeds the benefit to humanity.

Ironically, Bayer is the daughter company of IG Farben, the manufacturer of Zyklon B, a gas used in Nazi extermination camps.

Bayer is using the results of the study, conducted between 1998 and 2000, to argue that restrictions on pesticide use should be eased, because no
immediate adverse effects were suffered.

Groups of up to 16 volunteers were housed at a research centre in Edinburgh and fed azinphos-methyl (AM), an organophosphate. The dosages have not been disclosed. The World Health Organisation has classified AM as highly hazardous. Exposure is linked to blood and nervous system problems. The dangers are well documented. Accidental ingestion of a related Bayer organophosphate pesticide by 42 Peruvian children last year led to 24 deaths.

Source: Lois Rogers, Medical Correspondent the Times January 12, 2003