Residential Atrazine Study

Many herbicides and pesticides are thought to be involved in teratogenic, or embryonic development disturbing, mechanisms. Therefore it is important to study the effects of these chemicals on humans and wildlife in the event of contact or contamination. Case-Control Study of Maternal Residential Atrazine Exposure and Male Genital Malformations by Agopian in 2012 is one study that examines an herbicide, atrazine, in relation to birth defects of male genital development. Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States, with teratogenic effects suggested for multiple classifications of birth defects (Winston et al., 2016). Agriculturally, atrazine has an estimated half-life of a few weeks to several months, and is used to control broadleaf weeds and …show more content…
This study adds to the findings of previous experiments that support a potential effect of atrazine on the developing male reproductive system. In other studies, atrazine has been associated with demasculinized gonads and induction of hypospadias, a condition where the urethral opening is on the underside of the penis, in animal models (Agopian et al., 2013). Agopian’s study contradicts Goodman’s which states there is no positive association between atrazine and urogenital birth defects. But Agopian’s study appears to be more plausible because Goodman’s example experiment used an animal model with a 100mg/kg dose, but the maximum contaminant level set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency is only 3ug/L. Goodman also does not account for the fact that such high doses of atrazine may induce maternal toxicity that could either generate health problems that would not allow the mother to be healthy enough carry, or that may deform an embryo so severely that the mother’s body would consider it non-viable and naturally