Even higher risk was found for farmers who frequently mixed or applied the herbicide themselves. 11 Women workers exposed to atrazine, another major lawn herbicide, were nearly three times more likely to suffer ovarian cancer according to a recently published study by Donna et al, 1989. 12 Study conducted by the National Cancer Institute found elevated rates of canine lymphoma in dogs living in households where 2,4-D was used. 13 2,4-D is also an endocrine disruptor. The chemical acts as an estrogen mimic and disrupts the normal functioning of hormones and the message center of the body, causing long-term effects.
Hormones get into the developing cell and bind to receptors.
Depending on the types of hormones that are there, you can get genes permanently turned on and permanently turned off -not by virtue of the presence or absence of a hormone, but by just changing the amount of the hormone. It is not that males have just testosterone and no estradial or that females have just estradial and not testosterone, it is the relative amounts of these hormones, the maintenance of a regulated internal environment and the determination for which genes end up being active. Very, very subtly, in the smallest possible amounts, hormones can lead to very dramatic changes in how active these genes are and the way these cells function for the rest of the life of an individual. This is what is referred to as genetic imprinting. What hormone mimics like 2,4-D do that is different from the natural hormones is that they appear at the wrong times.