We briefly discussed this study in my public health class last week, during a related discussion on the Hopkins study looking at lead clean- up. Looking at it from multiple standpoints (as a public health/health evaluation sciences student, as a doctor, as an IRB member, as a researcher, and as a mother), I think most of the criticisms are overstated. The payment may be mildly coercive, but for the amount of time and energy required to participate, you could certainly argue that the compensation is appropriate. I would guess that one of the reasons that lower-income families are "targeted" is that they have previously demonstrated that they are more likely to use pesticides already, and are at higher risk from pesticide side effects. This would be equivalent to a study on low birth weight or lack of prenatal care among lower-income families -- you go where the greatest concentration of the event is. I am concerned with the fact that it is too short of a study to truly evaluate outcomes from pesticide exposure. Though, reading the study design information, it seems that it is not designed to look at outcomes, but simply at exposure. They even state that this is a preliminary study. They are asking for families who both use and don't use pesticides. Oh, and they demonstrated that 20% of respondents used pesticides within the last week -- this is definitely the ideal population to study. I actually think this will be a beneficial study, as it will potentially demonstrate that children have significantly higher exposures to "commonly used" pesticides, and are therefore at higher risk. I have a lot more thoughts about this (!), but don't want to take up Lactnet bandwidth. Anyone who is interested can email me, though. Shannon McElearney, MD Research Fellow in her fourth year in the Department of Surgery in her second year on the Human Investigatory Committeee, in the Health Evaluation Sciences master's program, and as a nursing mama *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html