Melanie Jeanes
Alyssa Miller
Repro 433
Prenatal Exposure to Atrazine: A Literature Review Atrazine (ATR) is a triazine herbicide commonly used in agricultural communities throughout the United States. ATR prevents and destroys the growth of broadleaf weeds particularly in corn and sorghum crops across the Corn Belt region of the Midwest (United States, 2007). The predominant herbicide used in U.S. agriculture, atrazine is a white, water-soluble, crystalline powder-like solid (United States, 2007). Once dispersed over crops or wooded areas, atrazine dissolves in water and subsequently contaminates groundwater, and later surface water and drinking water (Lazorko et al., 2009). ATR is detrimental to both human and animal populations because …show more content…
And of the little research that does exist on atrazine, it essentially contradicts itself. It is bothersome how in a contaminant can be considered relatively harmless and safe to consume in the United States, and the same contaminant can be considered dangerous to our Northern neighbors and banned in our nation’s motherland (Lazorko et al., 2009). The abundant use of an herbicide, whose long-term effects remain relatively unknown, added with atrazine’s extreme longevity, has the potential to be devastating. Minimal scientific research has been completed regarding human ingestion of ATR, but there are even fewer studies analyzing atrazine toxicity in children and adolescents (United States, 2007). What is known and is commonly accepted is that atrazine can disrupt natural endocrine function. Further research into the herbicide’s ability to hijack bodily hormones is undoubtedly needed. If atrazine can decrease hormone levels that stem from the surge center of the brain, it is not farfetched to assume it could yield psychological ailments. Specifically, there needs to be more research done on the impact of atrazine on teenager psyches. Short-circuiting hormonal schemes in pubertal adolescents must have