A new study published in PLoS ONE has found that "nitrate elicits developmental and reproductive toxicity at environmentally relevant concentrations due likely to its intracellular conversion to nitric oxide." In plainer terms, toxicologists at North Carolina State University studied water fleas, often known by their Latin name daphnia magna, and found that the little creatures can convert nitrites and nitrates to the significantly more toxic: nitric oxide. The nitric oxide can then cause developmental and reproductive toxicity in the tiny water fleas which, for example, leads to water flea babies born sans swimming appendages. So where are the nitrates coming from? Farms, golf courses, gardens... It's fertilizer runoff. And it turns out it is even more hazardous than previously thought. Ugh.
Read more here.
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