More on Atrazine, the very bad and the sinful

Back on August 5th I wrote about Atrazine, the herbicide that is used in 80 countries including the US but is banned in the EU.  In 2004 the EU banned it's use because studies showed that Atrazine could interfere with human reproductive processes.  Our EPA said the data was insufficient to determine if atrazine could cause reproductive problems in humans. 

The Very Bad

A new study was just released and it said "The common and highly-used herbicide atrazine can act within the brain to disrupt the cascade of hormone signals needed to initiate ovulation." "Collectively, the results of this study – along with a prior study by the same research group – demonstrate that exposure to atrazine in adults can disrupt the surge of hormones needed to trigger ovulation in rats. This mechanism is similar in rats and humans, suggesting that disruption in humans is at least possible." Environmental Health News, August 20th, 2009.  

The other news out of the study was that as soon as the rats were no longer exposed to Atrazine the disruption of the surge of hormones stopped. 

 

The Sinful

Now armed with that final piece of information, why isn't  Syngenta, the company that manufactures Atrazine, removing Atrazine from the marketplace and siting this study saying that there isn't any long term permanent health problems? Essentially they could take the money and run.  

Lets say we can climb into the heads of the Board of Directors of Syngenta and imagine what they are thinking. My guess, being the cynical environmental watchdog,  is that they are thinking along the following lines.

They might be thinking they can roll the dice and think the dice are fixed.  They can still manufacture Atrazine, make lots of profits and wait until another study proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that their product does interfere with the human reproductive system.  (I am not saying in general terms that I think capitalism is bad, I am saying making money and putting people's lives at risk is bad.) And if people complain about the long term effects they can site this current study.  If you believe this might be their reasoning I would suggest to you that the only conclusion is that they are indeed sinful.

The simple truth: Syngenta is manufacturing a chemical that is used to kill organic matter.  It is a weed killer.  Logically if it kills organic matter there is that possibility that it could kill us.  

We don't need it,  plenty of farmers grow food without herbicides and we don't want it, let them roll the dice with their own lives.

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