GREENSBORO, N.C., — A new jobs analysis shows atrazine continues to be a mainstay for US farmers for controlling weeds.
La atrazina admite hasta 85.000 puestos de trabajo en EE. UU., Según un nuevo informe del Dr. Don L. Coursey, profesor Ameritech de estudios de políticas públicas en la Escuela Harris de la Universidad de Chicago.
The new estimate is based on 2010 price and production figures and new research by a team of ag experts, who calculate atrazine’s value to the U.S. economy at up to $9 billion. It represents jobs related to atrazine in corn, grain sorghum, sugar cane and other production crops.
“We put this data about atrazine into a jobs perspective because people want to know the impact on the average consumer,” said Coursey in a statement. “If atrazine were to become unavailable, and all atrazine-dependent jobs were taken solely from the agricultural sector, its unemployment rate would increase by as much as 3.8%,” he added.
Syngenta, principal registrant for atrazine, commissioned new research, including five papers as well as Coursey’s report.
CropLife America’s November 2011 report supports Coursey’s estimate, according to a statement. It shows crop protection products, including but not limited to atrazine, create more than 1 million jobs and generate more than $33 billion in wages for US workers. The report details the economic, environmental and food production benefits of crop protection products, including pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides as well as biotechnology products.
En datos combinados de 236 ensayos universitarios de campo de maíz de 1986 a 2005, los tratamientos con atrazina mostraron un promedio de 5.7 bushels más por acre que los tratamientos alternativos con herbicidas, según Syngenta.
An Agricultural Health Study, published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2011, concluded that “there was no consistent evidence of an association between atrazine use and any cancer site. There was a suggestion of increased risk of thyroid cancer, but these results are based on relatively small numbers and minimal supporting evidence.”
Para obtener más información sobre la atrazina, visite www.atrazine.com.
Fuente: Syngenta, editado por Stefanie A. Toth, editora en línea