Casey Means on pesticides: what the evidence says · JRE #2210
SUBJECT: PESTICIDES
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
So atrazine, which is banned in Europe, but we spray 70 million pounds of it per year in the US, increases aromatase, which converts testosterone to estrogen. Illegal overseas. And it is, we buy it from other countries. So China and Germany and other countries are selling us a chemical of which 70 million pounds are sprayed on our food, invisible and tasteless, which upregulates aromatase and converts testosterone to estrogen.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The core science checks out. The US EPA estimates roughly 76.5 million pounds of atrazine are applied annually in the United States, so the 70 million pound figure is in the right range, and the European Union banned atrazine in 2004 (making it illegal there). Peer-reviewed toxicology confirms atrazine increases aromatase and aromatase activity, the enzyme that converts androgens such as testosterone into estrogens. The claim that the US buys atrazine from China and Germany is not supported: the ATSDR toxicological profile documents that atrazine is manufactured domestically at 24 US facilities (with the largest processing volumes in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Missouri) and that historical import data showed only a negligible amount imported, so the country-of-origin framing is misleading even though the volume, EU ban, and aromatase mechanism are accurate.