Abstract

On March 28, 2017, the national Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a much-anticipated report on the Environmental Protection Agency's controlled human inhalation exposure studies. To understand the genesis of the document, a quick review of recent events is in order.Prior to 2006, the EPA adopted the Common Rule for intramural or extramural research funded by the agency.1 Although the EPA did not have a formal policy that applied to research sponsored by private companies, it applied scientific and ethical standards to these studies on a case-by-case basis. In the 1990s, in support of requests to the agency to loosen its restrictions on pesticide residues on...