Policy Letter Regarding Atrazine

October 31, 2021

The Honorable Don Bacon

U.S. House of Representatives

217 Ford House Office Building

Dear Representative Bacon,

As a college student studying agriculture business I am very passionate about ag. Also, I am passionate about the state you represent, Nebraska (Directory of Representatives | House.gov, 2015) because I have family there and I love being in that state. My whole family out there grows corn, and recent things I’ve learned about the use of Atrazine on corn crops is very concerning to me for several reasons. First off, this chemical is banned in the EU but not the U.S (Sass & Colangelo, 2006). Anything banned in one country and not the U.S. is a red flag. There has to be a strong reason it is banned and there definitely is here with Atrazine. To name a few general side effects of Atrazine we can start with what it does to women. It produces hormonal irregularities in women and can lead to reproductive effects (The Effects of Atrazine in Drinking Water to Human Health, n.d.). On top of that, in all humans it can cause cancer and endocrine disruption. Also, it has been proven to cause sex changes in frogs and can do similar things to humans when consumed in high enough amounts (Aviv, n.d.). Scientist Tyron Hayes has done lots of research on this drug and his findings range from everything listed above to more. Syngenta the Atrazine producing company originally hired him to research the drug but after everything negative he found they did everything they could to discredit his work. They even threatened his family. Luckily, all this information he found did get out nonetheless (Aviv, n.d.). Today, Atrazine still is not banned and affects workers in the field most because of their great exposure to it, however it also affects almost everyone else too because Atrazine is found in lots of human drinking water (The Effects of Atrazine in Drinking Water to Human Health, n.d.). I understand how hard it might be to ban this dangerous chemical but a good start would be to start trying to filter it out of drinking water in the midwest where it is so heavily used. Most water filtration systems are not able to remove any Atrazine from water at all. However, there is a filter that can. The Black Berkey Water Filter can purify and remove 99.9% of Atrazine contamination from drinking waters. This filtration system has been extensively tested and is proven to work so it is a good option to implement the city's drinking water if it is too hard to get this chemical banned (The Effects of Atrazine in Drinking Water to Human Health, n.d.). I care about the great state of Nebraska, the people there, and especially those who work in the fields detasseling corn and so on. Safety should be the number one goal in agriculture but unfortunately it is not due to greedy financial reasons. I urge you to do everything you can with your position to push the U.S. to ban this dangerous chemical just like the EU rightfully did. Thank you for your time.

Best, A concerned Student

Works Cited

Aviv, R. (n.d.). A Valuable Reputation. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation

Directory of Representatives | House.gov. (2015). House.gov. https://www.house.gov/representatives

Sass, J. B., & Colangelo, A. (2006). European Union bans atrazine, while the United States negotiates continued use. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 12(3), 260–267. https://doi.org/10.1179/oeh.2006.12.3.260

The Effects of Atrazine in Drinking Water to Human Health. (n.d.). The Berkey. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://theberkey.com/blogs/water-filter/181709831-the-effects-of-atrazine-in-drinking-water-to-human-health#:~:text=It%20can%20increase%20the%20risk