Washington ? Exposing human volunteers to toxic pesticides and pollutants for scientific purposes is justified only under strict conditions and with careful review, a National Academy of Sciences panel said Thursday.

The Environmental Protection Agency should establish a special review board to evaluate any studies that involve intentionally giving people toxic chemicals, the committee said.

“Human studies involving pesticides, air pollutants, or other toxicants — as opposed to therapeutic agents — are particularly controversial, and because of this, EPA should subject these studies to the highest level of scientific and ethical scrutiny,” said committee co-chairman James F. Childress, a professor of ethics and medical education at the University of Virginia.

Erik Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council said he was very troubled by the report. “We find it gravely disturbing,” he said, that toxic chemicals could be tested on humans and that the government would use the results of such tests done by industry in the past.

EPA spokeswoman Cynthia Bergman said the agency was still reviewing the report and had no immediate response.

CropLife America, a pesticide industry trade group, welcomed the report, saying it agrees “with the major finding that human testing is ethical, provided there are safeguards and sound science is used.

“Our industry is ethically and legally bound to provide regulators the information they need to determine that products are safe as they set stringent guidelines for their proper use,” the group said in a statement.

The panel convened by the National Research Council, the operating arm of the academy, looked at 19 pesticide studies received by EPA since 1991 involving volunteers.