In July 2005, Congress ordered the EPA to ban pesticide testing on pregnant women and children. Congress asserted that the agency was accepting industry data gathered from unethical human experiments as part of its review of pesticide registration applications.

Until President Bill Clinton imposed a moratorium in 1998, federal officials had allowed manufacturers to conduct pesticide experiments on human beings on the grounds that such tests provided a clearer picture than animal experiments could of how pesticides might affect the environment and public health.

President Bush initially backed the moratorium, but his administration abandoned it in 2003 after a court ruling in favor of pesticide makers. The firms had argued that the government had not fully involved the public before banning the use of the information.

According to the EPA, the final rules represent suggestions from the National Academy of Sciences and stick to the standards ordered by Congress.