PORKER
Well-known member
August 31, Star Press – (Indiana) State instructs farmers to keep weed killer out of water. Indiana corn growers apparently are heeding concerns that the popular weed-killer, atrazine, turns male frogs into females — and potentially threatens human health.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently issued a report reminding Indianans that many of their watersheds and much of their drinking water are contaminated with atrazine, and recommending the use of home water filters.
The environmental action group is also calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to phase out the use of atrazine, an endocrine disrupter that has been known to turn male frogs into females and that also has been tied to poor sperm quality in humans.
As a result of concern that corn growers were not following label requirements, the state chemist's office several years ago launched outreach programs that reached more than 20,000 Indiana pesticide applicators who use atrazine or might use it to control weeds in corn crops.
A water quality specialist in the pesticide section of the state chemist's office said, "One of the messages we were working on really hard was that atrazine behaves one way when applied to the soil and a different way when it makes its way into a water body." Source: http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090831/NEWS01/908310318/1002
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently issued a report reminding Indianans that many of their watersheds and much of their drinking water are contaminated with atrazine, and recommending the use of home water filters.
The environmental action group is also calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to phase out the use of atrazine, an endocrine disrupter that has been known to turn male frogs into females and that also has been tied to poor sperm quality in humans.
As a result of concern that corn growers were not following label requirements, the state chemist's office several years ago launched outreach programs that reached more than 20,000 Indiana pesticide applicators who use atrazine or might use it to control weeds in corn crops.
A water quality specialist in the pesticide section of the state chemist's office said, "One of the messages we were working on really hard was that atrazine behaves one way when applied to the soil and a different way when it makes its way into a water body." Source: http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20090831/NEWS01/908310318/1002