I offer this in response to the recent posting that discussed safety issues
re: Atrazine use.
~~Katerina Keller
from Organic Gardening, January/February 2000
As if chemical pesticides were not dangerous enough on their own, a new
study concludes that they may pose even greater health risk when mingled
with synthetic fertilizers, as they often are in farm runoff.
The five-year study, published in Toxicology and Industrial Health (1999,
vol. 15) examined three common farm chemicals--the widely used insecticide
aldicarb, the herbicide atrazine, and nitrate from fertilizers and found
that when used together and consumed at concentrations that mirror those
found in groundwater, the can significantly disrupt the human immune and
endocrine systems, as
well neurological health. The three chemicals are used heavily worldwide and
are the most common sources of groundwater contamination in the United
States.
The tests conducted on mice by environmental toxicologist Warren P Porter,
Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested
that children and developing fetuses are most at risk from such
pesticide-fertilizer cocktails. In young children, the mixtures' influences
could result in changes in learning ability and in patterns of aggression,
according to Dr. Porter.
Herbicides are often said to be harmless to animals, but Dr. Porter says,
"They can be every bit as biologically active as insecticides or
fungicides."
This study adds to the growing body of evidence proving that current safety
testing methods for chemical pesticides are fundamentally flawed. Not only
are chemicals almost never tested in the combinations that commonly occur,
but the tests the government does require are "extremely limited in scope
and focuses on mechanisms that require extensive mutations or cell damage to
show any effects," Dr. Porter says. "They do not adequately assess the
potential for biological effects under real-world exposure scenarios."
[End of citation.]
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