Limits Sought on Testing for Pesticides

The Senate on Wednesday passed two amendments to an appropriations bill that would limit the Environmental Protection Agency's use of pesticide tests that involve humans.

By a 60-to-37 vote, a bipartisan measure introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, and a dozen others would place a one-year moratorium on any government-sponsored testing programs on humans.

By a 57-to-40 vote, a measure sponsored by three Republicans, Senators Conrad Burns of Montana, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, would require a review by third-party groups of all human testing programs conducted for the government, to identify and quantify their toxic effects. It also gives the E.P.A. six months to develop new regulations on pesticide testing.

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