Atrazine is a herbicide used in agriculture against grassy weeds with a long lasting effect on the environment. Although atrazine is banned in several European countries, researchers believe it is “not likely” for atrazine to cause cancer for humans since they did not find any data among the available studies that would indicate otherwise.

The biosensor is portable, faster and more economic than the more common slow, bulky, and expensive laboratory equipment used to detect contaminants.

The atrazine contamination may come from underground and overground water. The antibiotic contamination may appear because of the medicines used to treat bacterial infections in animals.

The sensor detects concentrations as low as 0,02 micrograms of atrazine per gallon and five micrograms of antibiotics per gallon for whole milk.

The sensor`s chemical mechanism acts like the human immune system does when it identifies a virus in the body. The sensor uses antibodies for atrazine that hook onto the bacteria and attract them to the surface where they are converted into electrical signals. The electrical signals show the concentration of contaminants in the food sample.

The sensor has been successfully tested for detecting pesticides.

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