Hi Paul

1. Perhaps many folks do not realize the fact that, even though, as you
state:
to my knowlede, CCD is not more prevalent in the corn and
soybean belt of the upper midwest where both atrazine and the
neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used.
...Atrazine is actually found in most chemical lawn products, so a national
phenome. My area around DC shows high concentrations (well, high according
to biologists who work with the effects on critters and humans, not 'high'
in ag and gov circle opinion...yet....) in our drinking water. The most
interesting thing is a correlational link, note I did not say causal,
between the presence of Atrazine in drinking and bathing water and ADHD.
There are indeed animal research precedents which also show ADHD-like
symptoms in tadpoles and fish, creating major forage/predator evasion
problems.

2. Syngenta is a very interesting story. It turns out that Tyrone Hayes
(Harvard, Cum Laude, UC Berkeley) was initially hired by Syngenta, before
anyone knew of the problems with Atrazine, to do studies showing that
Atrazine was indeed safe. Dr. Hayes initially believed that to be the case.
As you correctly point out,
Syngenta, the maker of atrazine, questions the credibility of several
university studies which suggest atrazine causes developmental
problems for amphibians:

Imagine the consternation when his research showed major developmental and
biological problems with amphibians exposed to even low levels of Atrazine!
Syngenta attempted to cover up, and continues to cover up, the discovery,
and, of course, relieved Dr. Hayes of his position.
However, the data is still there.....

If you are interested in finding out more about the results, Dr. Hayes has a
website www.atrazinelovers.com (guess he was a bit irked) which lays out the
science in layman's terms. Note please that although the 'home' bullet on
the right does not work, everything else does.

3. Atrazine and other like chemical contaminants are highly water soluable
and have been found hundreds of miles from their sources, both in rivers and
in wells. These chems are not filtered out of our public drinking systems,
and are increasingly significantly scientifically linked to birth defects
(especially reproductive organ defects in males), infertility, obesity,
attention deficit, and autism.

I suppose we will all have to choose at what point we feel 'scientifically
linked' is conclusive enough to make us change our habits and preferences
for products. I personally believe that prevention goes a lot further than
trying to fix something once its broken.

:)Andrea


> --
"When the well runs dry, we learn the worth of water" - Benjamin Franklin

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