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A recent story in the Daily Mail fails to include scientific evidence supporting a proposedassociation between atrazine – a commonly used herbicide– and gastroschisis – a severe birth defect – ina UK community. Without this supporting information, theplausibility of the association is hard to judge, and the storycomes across as sensational rather than credible. This does adisservice to the afflicted families by failing to communicatetheir concerns in context of the available scientific knowledge. In the last 12 years, nine babies born to mothers in the Waterdalesstreet area of Northfleet, UK, have been born with gastroschisis.The birth defect occurs when a baby"s intestines protrudethrough an opening in the abdominal wall that did not closeproperly during development. Concerned residents are now wonderingif this cluster of birth defects is related to the high levels ofatrazine detected in 2008 in nearby ground water. Gastroschisis affects approximately one in 7,000 births around theworld, but its incidence appears to be on the rise. While youngmaternal age (less then 20 years old), being pregnant for the firsttime, and smoking and drug use during pregnancy are all known toincrease the risk, prenatal exposure to atrazine has recentlyemerged as another proposed explanation. Atrazine is widely used for weed control in corn, sorghum andsugarcane crops, among others. It was banned in the European Unionin 2004, but continues to be used elsewhere. It is currently thesecond most widely used pesticide on U.S. crops. Up to 78 millionpounds were used in the U.S. in 2007. Atrazine has been shown to feminize frogs at concentrations thatare commonly found in the environment. It has been linked todecreased sperm count, prostate cancer, breast cancer, low birthweight, premature births and menstrual disorders in humans. Three recent studies also report associations between atrazine andgastrointestinal birth defects in people. Two studies from IndianaUniversity found correlations between atrazine levels in surfacewaters and either increased rates of gastroschisis in the state of Indiana , or increased rates of nine classes of birth defects – including gastrointestinal defects – across the U.S . The strongest evidence is a 2010 study from the University of Washington. The researchers report thatwomen who lived closer to areas with high surface water levels ofatrazine were more likely to have a baby with gastroschisis. Theyalso found a seasonal pattern: babies conceived in the spring– the time of peak atrazine use – were most likely tohave the birth defect. While these three studies do not prove a causal link betweenatrazine and gastroschisis, they provide supporting evidence thatmakes the link more credible. Without this background information,the association proposed in the Daily Mail article seemsfar-fetched. Other missing elements include how the women might have beenexposed to atrazine, an explanation for the high levels of atrazinein the Northfleet groundwater sample, and a mention of anothercluster of gastroschisis in the Wadeville area of New South Wales,where a link to atrazine exposure is also being explored. The above work by Environmental Health News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 UnportedLicense . Based on a work at . I am an expert from 101hairtonic.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China 101G Hair Tonic , Natural Anti Acne, 101F Hair Tonic,and more.
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