Atrazine

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Summary

Atrazine is an herbicide that has been used on corn, sorghum and other crops for more than 50 years. Despite the more than 6,000 studies that attest to its safety, radical environmentalists (like the Environmental Working Group, Natural Resources Defense Council and Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)) are agitating for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban atrazine. The EPA is currently reviewing the scientific data on atrazine. University of California-Berkeley activist-researcher Tyrone Hayes claims that atrazine harms frogs but the EPA has not found his studies to be credible.

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Studies and Reports

  • Entine J, Scare to Death: How Chemophobia Threatens Public Health, American Council on Science and Health, January 18, 2011.
  • Sathiakumar N et al., Mortality among workers at two triazine herbicide manufacturing plants, Am J Ind Med. 1996 Feb;29(2):143-51.
    • Abstract. "Triazine herbicides, used extensively in the United States, have not been assessed adequately for carcinogenicity in humans. This study evaluated the mortality experience during the period 1960-1986 of 2,683 men with definite or probable manufacturing exposure to triazine herbicides and 2,234 men with possible exposure to triazines. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were computed as the observed numbers of deaths among study subjects divided by the numbers expected on the basis of general population mortality rates. Subjects with definite or probable exposure to triazines had a favorable mortality experience, compared with U.S. men [all causes, SMR = 72, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 58-89; all cancer, SMR = 85, CI = 46-142]. This group had an increase in deaths from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (3 observed/0.78 expected, SMR = 385, CI = 79-1,124). Two of the decedents with NHL had worked for less than 1 year in triazine-related jobs. Among the 2,234 subjects with possible triazine-related work, the mortality rate for all causes combined was similar to the rates of U.S. men. There was only one confirmed death from NHL. On balance, the results were consistent with previous investigations, which have found no convincing evidence of a causal link between triazines and cancer. However, the exposed cohorts were relatively young and had, on average, only 18 years of follow-up. In particular, results were imprecise for subjects having both a long duration of exposure and long potential induction periods."

Further Reading

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