Atrazine banned abroad but still in use in U.S.

By Holly Fleming

Published on April 17, 2006

Approximately 75 percent of American corn farmers have used atrazine over the past 50 years, totaling about 70 million pounds per year. The herbicide is a cost-effective alternative to hand-tilling to remove weeds.

But as the EU prepares to ban atrazine, attention is once again being focused on its safety here.

The EU decided to take atrazine off the market as a precautionary measure after the chemical was detected in drinking water.

American environmental groups have filed lawsuits claiming that atrazine should also be banned here. Researchers not only have discovered it in drinking water, they say, but have also linked atrazine to deformities in amphibians and lower sperm counts in men.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that atrazine is unlikely to cause cancer in humans, and that there will not likely be significant damaging ecological effects from using the herbicide properly. But the federal agency also states that the studies suggest that amphibians might be harmed by atrazine, and that the question deserves further study.

The EPA settled one of the lawsuits and agreed last month to study whether atrazine is killing loggerhead turtles and other endangered species in the Chesapeake Bay.

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