Atrazine – Weed Killer or Health Hazard

Atrazine is an herbicide, it is one of the most widely used weed-killers in the United States and is also used in about 80 countries. According to Wikipedia, 77 million pound of atrazine was used in 2003. Because of its popularity for killing weed, there are many controversy about its health effects. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that there is not enough evidence to prove that atrazine is dangerous to health. Independent studies disagreed, they found out that atrazine causes sexual abnormalities in frogs, has carcinogenic effects and is an estrogen disruptor. Other independent studies even linked atrazine to low sperm count, prostate cancer, breast and ovarian cancer in people. So, which one should you believe, the EPA or independent studies. My advise is to trust the independent studies more than government agencies. The EPA, like many U.S. government agencies, is highly influenced by big corporations. These corporations used money as a tool to persuade the government to be on their side. In fact, many of these non-independent studies are funded by Syngenta, the manufacturer of atrazine. Syngenta knows that their herbicide is bad for health and the environment which is why it tried to hide evidence from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) during court. Because of its negative health effects, atrazine has been banned in many Europe countries.

Spring is when atrazine is use the most because it is planting season. This is the time when you should be the most concern about the quality of your drinking water. Because it rains a lot during spring, atrazine can easily be wash into lakes, rivers, streams and underground water supplies. This can contaminate your drinking water and put your health at risk. In fact, atrazine is one of the top contaminate found in drinking water through out the United States. The water treatment system in the United States is dangerously out of date, you shouldn’t rely on it to clean your drinking water. Instead, replace your regular faucet with a carbon-based water filter or system to filter out atrazine. These filter or systems are commonly available at your local grocery stores. Most of them do a good job removing atrazine from your drinking water.

Related Posts:

• Drinking Water Health Hazard Part 2
• Irradiated Food – Safe or Hazardous

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