[olsen]

"...Atrazine is one of the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the U.S., applied before and after planting, primarily on corn, sorghum, sugar cane and even lawns, according to the EPA. James said levels of atrazine in state groundwater haven't changed significantly in 20 years. The CU researchers used well-water data from the U.S. Geological Survey and other publicly available records.

The group's findings are that for every 0.01 milligram of atrazine per liter of water, there is a 4 percent increase in the risk for Parkinson's disease. In agricultural areas, such as parts of the plains, where concentrations of the herbicide can be as high as 0.1 mg/l, there was a 40 percent increase in Parkinson's disease.

"We are seeing that more people with Parkinson's disease reside in areas with higher levels of herbicides in groundwater," James said. "It's not a causation study. We still don't have an understanding of causality."

A suspected cause of the disease is the accumulation in the brain of abnormal proteins, although it isn't understood why they accumulate.

CU School of Medicine professor Curt Freed, head of the pharmacology and toxicology division, is investigating phenylbutyrate, a drug that, in his earlier study of mice, appeared to clear the brain of these protein clumps and stop the decline in brain function..."

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26...ses-treatments

[olsen]

"...Hayes has devoted the past fifteen years to studying atrazine, and during that time scientists around the world have expanded on his findings, suggesting that the herbicide is associated with birth defects in humans as well as in animals. The company documents show that, while Hayes was studying atrazine, Syngenta was studying him, as he had long suspected. Syngenta’s public-relations team had drafted a list of four goals. The first was “discredit Hayes.” In a spiral-bound notebook, Syngenta’s communications manager, Sherry Ford, who referred to Hayes by his initials, wrote that the company could “prevent citing of TH data by revealing him as noncredible.” He was a frequent topic of conversation at company meetings. Syngenta looked for ways to “exploit Hayes’ faults/problems.” “If TH involved in scandal, enviros will drop him,” Ford wrote. She observed that Hayes “grew up in world (S.C.) that wouldn’t accept him,” “needs adulation,” “doesn’t sleep,” was “scarred for life.” She wrote, “What’s motivating Hayes?—basic question.”

Syngenta, which is based in Basel, sells more than fourteen billion dollars’ worth of seeds and pesticides a year and funds research at some four hundred academic institutions around the world. When Hayes agreed to do experiments for the company (which at that time was part of a larger corporation, Novartis), the students in his lab expressed concern that biotech companies were “buying up universities” and that industry funding would compromise the objectivity of their research..."

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...ble-reputation