2. One popular fertilizer, urea, produces ammonia emanation, contributes to acid rain, groundwater contamination and ozone depletion due to release of nitrous oxide by denitrification process.
With its increased use and projections of future use, this problem may increase several fold in the coming decades.
Groundwater contamination has been linked to gastric cancer, goiter, birth malformations, and hypertension; testicular cancer and stomach cancer.
Excessive air- and water-borne nitrogen from fertilizers may cause respiratory ailments, cardiac disease, and several cancers, as well as can "inhibit crop growth, increase allergenic pollen production, and potentially affect the dynamics of several vector-borne diseases, including West Nile virus, malaria, and cholera.”