
WSU researchers see popular herbicide affecting health across generations - clumsysmurf
https://news.wsu.edu/2017/09/20/herbicide-affecting-health-across-generations/
======
bloaf
Atrazine research has an... interesting past:

[http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazin...](http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine)

The big Atrazine manufacturer was caught hiring investigators to dig up dirt
on researchers and regulators who were not on board with the "Atrazine is
safe" narrative.

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jackmott
why are companies so horrible so often? ugh.

~~~
teekert
Crazy isn't it, I just watched this Cosmos episode [0] it describes how this
"scientist" [1] on behalf of the gasoline companies kept lead in gasoline for
20 years after it was first discovered to be a major health problem. It
sickening what people do for money.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clean_Room](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clean_Room)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Kehoe)

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Cacti
_When Skinner and his colleagues looked at sperm of the offspring, they found
epimutations, or alterations in the methyl groups that stick to DNA and affect
its activation._

 _“Observations indicate that although atrazine does not promote disease in
the directly exposed F1 [first] generation, it does have the capacity to
promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease in subsequent
generations,” the researchers write._

Damn... that's very disconcerting.

~~~
vanderZwan
It makes me wonder how often this kind of effect is tested for, and how many
other chemicals might do this that slipped through the testing phase.

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DoodleBuggy
The primary reason most people who eat organic food do so is to avoid
consuming pesticides and herbicides.

I have yet to read a single study indicating that consuming pesticides is good
for health, but if anyone has such a study I'd love to read it.

~~~
ensignavenger
I am pretty sure consuming food with small pesticide residue is much healthier
than starving to.

If you have a working method to maintain crop yields while eliminating all
pesticide use and not increasing cost significantly, I think there would be a
lot of people interested, and probably a lot of money to earned.

~~~
Fej
Robots.

If you have a small machine that constantly plucks weeds, you don't need
herbicides.

Not sure about pesticides.

~~~
ensignavenger
Autonomous tractors are totally a thing. They will only get better with time
and development, but they can't replace pesticides yet.

~~~
robbiep
You're conflating pesticides and herbicides

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grzm
I understand the distinction you're making. My understanding has been that
pesticide is a term that includes both insecticides and herbicides.

> _Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests or weeds. The
> term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticide, insect
> growth regulator, nematicide, termiticide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide,
> rodenticide, predacide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent,
> antimicrobial, fungicide, disinfectant (antimicrobial), and sanitizer._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticide)

~~~
robbiep
My bad. As the child of farmers it's never been used this way where I'm from

~~~
grzm
No harm, no foul! Growing up in a farming community myself was one of the
reasons I spoke up, and I'm sure there's variation in how these terms are
used. I definitely knew what you were getting at. Language is pretty
interesting!

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senseless
I'd like to see them expose the rat to a fruit or vegetable that's had a
certain amount of the pesticide sprayed on it. And then expose another rat to
a fruit or vegetable that's had the pesticide sprayed on it but was then
washed with water in the sink before eating. I wonder if the results would be
very different. And I really hope so since that's how I prepare all my
produce.

~~~
singularity2001
Many pesticides get absorbed in the fruits, washing doesn't help. If I ruined
your day monsanto ruined your life.

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pmontra
DEET is a component of insect repellants. I've been advised by doctors to buy
DEET based repellants when going to areas with possible mosquito borne
diseases. In my experience it worked pretty well, possibly zero bites.
Anything else is not as effective.

It seems logical and not surprising to associate powerful repellent effect to
toxicity but maybe not to effects going down to the third generation. Is there
any substitute proved to be not toxic?

There are measures like wearing light colored clothes, don't going out when
dark and mosquito nets for windows or beds but they are not enough.

Edit: I found this article [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-
true-that-t...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-true-that-
the-deet/) with some advice.

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jxramos
Scary to think these effects only get observed in short lifespan animal models
where multi generations can elapse in a reasonable time. Think about all the
complaints and difficulties with running long term (individual) studies
butting up against the next scale of multi-generational studies that are
required for human lifespans.

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leeoniya
[https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/5-pesticides-
used-...](https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/5-pesticides-used-in-us-
are-banned-in-other-countries/)

