For decades, farmers, lawn care workers, and homeowners have relied on the popular weed killer atrazine to protect their crops, golf courses, and manicured lawns. It is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world; it is both inexpensive and effective as a weed killer.
Atrazine was banned in the European Union in 2004 because of its persistent groundwater contamination. However, the United States applies more than 150 million pounds of the product each year on corn and soybean fields; majority of the usage across the Midwest.
Atrazine is an important tool to corn producers and availability of this low cost product is paramount for growers to remain profitable. It is especially essential for no-till corn production, which reduces soil erosion and increased water quality. The problem, atrazine often washes into water supplies, especially after heavy rains; and has become one of the most common contaminants in American reservoirs and other sources of drinking water.
Recent studies have indicated that potential health risks include low birth weights, menstrual problems, and birth defects such as gastroschisi (intestines and other organs develop outside the abdomen). The product has been linked to causing demasculinization in male frogs, in a 2010 study 75% of the male frogs became sterile after exposure and 10% of the frogs turned into females. Yet another study conducted by the EPA and funded by Syngenta (a company that develops, markets, and sells pesticides; including atrazine) were unable to produce the same results.
Herbicides in drinking water are becmong a major health concern as the conventional water treatments used by 90% of public water utilities in this country do not remove any of the herbicides that are most ocmmonly applied in the U.S. However, people that live in rural, agricultural areas are at the greatest risk for herbicidal drinking water contramination as the vast majority of them get their water from private wells which are not subject to routine testing.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service acknowledges that the chemical may also harm the reproductive and endocrine systems in fish species. Studies conducted by the herbicide manufacturers own chemists determined that the top five herbicides cause at least nine different types of cancer, various birth defects, and genetic mutations that are passed on from one generation to the next. Reproductive problems and birth defects occur despite atrazine concentrations far below federal drinking water standards considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Proteciton Agency (EPA).
The EPA and FDA have imposed strict controls on the allowable levels of contaminants in food, but the standards for herbicidal water contaminants are curiously lax. Atrazine is just one of many herbicides that make contact with our drinking water through a watershed, what about herbicides that are directly applied to the water, like 2,4-D? Code name Agent Orange, it killed or maimed 400,000 people in Vietnam. It didn't end there either; third generations of victims are beginning to realize their health issues which have been genetically handed down to them.
It may take a few more generations for us to fully grasp the impact that herbicides in drinking water have on our bodies, but unless we get serious about controlling them right now, these problems will persist for a very long time to come.
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