Atrazine Research Paper
Better Safe Than Sorry
What is Atrazine? It is a synthetic compound used as an agricultural herbicide created by the company Syngenta. This specific agricultural herbicide is causing uproar across the entire world. There are people saying it has negative environmental impacts, others say it does no harm to our planet and we have nothing to worry about. I believe it does have a negative impact on our environment and I have all the evidence to backup my claim. We should ban Atrazine because it contaminates water supplies, has been linked with possible carcinogenic effects, and endocrine disruption in amphibians and humans, and finally, it has harmful reproductive effects. This is why Atrazine needs to be banned sooner than later, for our planet’s …show more content…
First, is has been linked to endocrine disruption, which basically means it is turning males into females. For example, in an article it states, “The science on Atrazine effects on the hormone system continues to grow. It alters the levels of key hormones in rats and can delay puberty. In male frogs, exposure to atrazine causes a kind of "chemical castration," causing them to develop female sex characteristics. Researchers hypothesize that atrazine signals the conversion of testosterone to estrogen, demasculinizing the frogs” (PAN). Also, another study showed, “Of the most cited and concerning studies on the effects of atrazine was the one conducted by Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a scientist from UC Berkeley in 2002. Dr. Hayes and his colleagues found evidence that exposure to atrazine resulted in demasculinization and hermaphroditism of male frogs even at very low concentrations (30 times lower than EPA recommended levels in drinking water). In fact, at all doses above .01 parts per billion all ‘specimens’ experienced gonadal abnormalities that were never observed in control animals. These abnormalities included reduced larynges and plasma testosterone in males and excess estrogen in females. After much replication, Hayes’ laboratory concluded that atrazine consistently inhibited testosterone production and generated estrogen secretion” (Valentine, 2013). Secondly, it has been linked with possible carcinogenic effects. This means it has been linked to causing cancer in organisms, maybe not immediately, but overtime exposure will increase your chances of obtaining cancer. For example, the carcinogenic effects of Atrazine is growing according to one article, “Evidence for the carcinogenic potential of atrazine is growing — exposure has been linked to elevated risk of breast and prostate cancer. The recent President's Cancer
What is Atrazine? It is a synthetic compound used as an agricultural herbicide created by the company Syngenta. This specific agricultural herbicide is causing uproar across the entire world. There are people saying it has negative environmental impacts, others say it does no harm to our planet and we have nothing to worry about. I believe it does have a negative impact on our environment and I have all the evidence to backup my claim. We should ban Atrazine because it contaminates water supplies, has been linked with possible carcinogenic effects, and endocrine disruption in amphibians and humans, and finally, it has harmful reproductive effects. This is why Atrazine needs to be banned sooner than later, for our planet’s …show more content…
First, is has been linked to endocrine disruption, which basically means it is turning males into females. For example, in an article it states, “The science on Atrazine effects on the hormone system continues to grow. It alters the levels of key hormones in rats and can delay puberty. In male frogs, exposure to atrazine causes a kind of "chemical castration," causing them to develop female sex characteristics. Researchers hypothesize that atrazine signals the conversion of testosterone to estrogen, demasculinizing the frogs” (PAN). Also, another study showed, “Of the most cited and concerning studies on the effects of atrazine was the one conducted by Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a scientist from UC Berkeley in 2002. Dr. Hayes and his colleagues found evidence that exposure to atrazine resulted in demasculinization and hermaphroditism of male frogs even at very low concentrations (30 times lower than EPA recommended levels in drinking water). In fact, at all doses above .01 parts per billion all ‘specimens’ experienced gonadal abnormalities that were never observed in control animals. These abnormalities included reduced larynges and plasma testosterone in males and excess estrogen in females. After much replication, Hayes’ laboratory concluded that atrazine consistently inhibited testosterone production and generated estrogen secretion” (Valentine, 2013). Secondly, it has been linked with possible carcinogenic effects. This means it has been linked to causing cancer in organisms, maybe not immediately, but overtime exposure will increase your chances of obtaining cancer. For example, the carcinogenic effects of Atrazine is growing according to one article, “Evidence for the carcinogenic potential of atrazine is growing — exposure has been linked to elevated risk of breast and prostate cancer. The recent President's Cancer