Health

Vietnam veterans and agent orange exposure—new report

The latest in a series of congressionally mandated biennial reviews of the evidence of health problems that may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War found sufficient evidence ...

Ophthalmology

Giant hogweed can cause burns and blindness

(PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S Department of Agriculture is warning residents in a variety of states to be on the lookout for the Heracleum Mantegazzianum, or giant hogweed. This plant in native to Central Asia but has turned up ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Weed-killer compounds also kill parasite sometimes found in cat feces

The parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects up to one-third of the human population, experts say. Sometimes transmitted to humans from infected cat feces or litter, the protozoan can cause severe and even deadly illnesses in immunocompromised ...

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Herbicide

Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant hormones. Herbicides used to clear waste ground, industrial sites, railways and railway embankments are non-selective and kill all plant material with which they come into contact. Smaller quantities are used in forestry, pasture systems, and management of areas set aside as wildlife habitat.

Some plants produce natural herbicides, such as the genus Juglans (walnuts), or the tree of heaven; such action of natural herbicides, and other related chemical interactions, is called allelopathy.

Herbicides are widely used in agriculture and in landscape turf management. In the U.S., they account for about 70% of all agricultural pesticide use.

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