Toxic Pesticide Reauthorized

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced an interim decision to reauthorize the use of the pesticide atrazine in the majority of US states.

Atrazine is widely studied due to its known and suspected harm to human health and the environment. According to the consumer advocacy group Center for Food Safety, it is an endocrine-disrupting compound that has been widely detected in drinking water sources and the environment. It is used intensively, second only to glyphosate among conventional pesticides in use. Since the early 1990s, between 65 and 80 million lbs./year have been used.

Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, calls the EPA decision misguided and politically motivated. “Atrazine is extremely toxic to aquatic plants, fish, and amphibians. It has been associated with adverse reproductive impacts and cancer,” he said.

The Center for Food Safety’s senior attorney, Sylvia Wu, said the EPA admits atrazine is harmful yet relies on “weak mitigation measures and voluntary industry programs.”