Syngenta/ChemChina’s atrazine is the second most widely used herbicide in the United States, and the number-one most commonly detected pesticide in tap water. It’s been banned in the European Union since 2003.
Atrazine is best known for being the pesticide that turns male frogs into females. Tyrone Hayes, the University of California at Berkeley scientist who made this shocking discovery has an excellent TED Talk on his research. His concerns about Atrazine go much further than the way it impacts frogs. His research, which was funded by Novartis (now Syngenta/ChemChina), showed that atrazine stimulates the expression of the enzyme aromatase, which causes humans, as well as frogs, to make too much estrogen. Aromatase is implicated in estrogen-dependent breast cancer, so much so that Novartis, while marketing its aromatase-promoting atrazine weedkiller, simultaneously developed a breast cancer drug which works by blocking aromatase-stimulated estrogen production. This is a point Hayes makes in an interview he did with Democracy Now!, “Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted by Herbicide Firm Syngenta.”
Atrazine disrupts the endocrine system, which regulates the development of the brain and the nervous system, as well as metabolism and blood sugar levels, along with reproduction. The pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal glands are major constituents of the endocrine system, in addition to ovaries in women and testes in men. Atrazine also causes problems beyond the endocrine system, including diminished immune function.
It’s very difficult for scientists to prove that a single toxin, among the many we’re exposed to in our polluted environment, is the decisive factor in common health issues, but real-world studies have definitively linked atrazine to:
Animal studies have helped scientists figure out what atrazine might be doing to our bodies that can’t easily be seen in available real-world data. The studies have revealed how atrazine can cause a range of ailments, including neurodegenerative disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and obesity.
As Dr. Joseph Mercola reports in, “Is This Common Weed Killer Aging Your Brain?” a recent study used mice to replicate the chronic, long-term, low-dose exposure of humans to atrazine through drinking water. The study demonstrated how atrazine exposure triggers oxidative stress and inflammation. These two processes, found in both normal aging and neurodegenerative disease, damage brain cells like rust weakens metal. At the same time, atrazine interferes with two processes that are necessary to healthy, youthful brain cells: autophagy, the cells’ cleaning system, and mitochondrial function, the cells’ power source. The impairment of autophagy causes the buildup of cellular waste, while the interruption of mitochondrial function decreases energy production. Atrazine’s four impacts on brain cells, the increase in oxidative stress and inflammation and the decrease in autophagy and mitochondrial function, combined to create conditions very similar to aging and neurodegenerative disease. The mice’s atrazine-exposed brain cells were deficient in two neurotransmitters: dopamine, which plays a key role in movement, reward and motivation, and acetylcholine, essential for memory and learning. Atrazine-exposed mice had poor motor coordination and balance, and performed significantly worse on tasks requiring memory, learning and spatial navigation.
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including atrazine, are implicated in PCOS, an endocrinopathy associated with menstrual dysfunction, infertility, hirsutism, acne, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. The specific link to atrazine was demonstrated in an experiment where pigs exposed to atrazine developed multiple ovarian follicular cysts.
Exposure to toxins is a growing part of the modern obesity crisis, which can no longer be seen as simply a problem of too many calories and not enough exercise. Atrazine is an obesogen. This was demonstrated in a study where rats exposed to low concentrations of atrazine via drinking water developed mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance leading to slower metabolism, increased body weight, abdominal fat and insulin resistance. All of this happened without changing the rats food intake or physical activity level.
The human atrazine experiment has gone on for too long already. We shouldn’t tolerate any more of the birth defects, infertility, and chronic health conditions this toxin is causing.
TAKE ACTION BEFORE APRIL 4: Tell the EPA to Ban Atrazine!
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