Atrazine

Despite evidence of hormonal disruption, EPA considering re-registration

Public Comment Needed - Send Email to:  opp-docket@epa.gov.

[ Read excerpts from EPA Atrazine Report ]

 

            

Subject:    Atrazine: An Herbicide that Should Be on the Way Out
 Date:        Wed, 11 Apr 2001 08:25:18 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

cc:    Carol Browner browner.carol@epa.gov

Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides latest ACTION ALERT, entitled: Atrazine: An Herbicide that Should Be on the Way Out.

Atrazine: An Herbicide that Should Be on the Way Out

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began implementing the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, then-administrator Lynn Goldman explained how the law set the agency on "new directions in public health protection."(1) "For the first time," Goldman said, "children's health comes first when it comes to pesticides in food. If a pesticide residue will be unsafe for children, the pesticide can't be used."(1) Recent actions by EPA with respect to the herbicide atrazine, however, show just how far from reality such statements are.

In February, 2001, EPA released its preliminary risk assessment for atrazine. The document collects some of the recent research about atrazine's powerful effects on hormone systems, but fails to recommend any changes in its uses.(2) Briefly, here are the important facts about atrazine collected by EPA. It is one of the two most widely used agricultural pesticides in the U.S. About three-fourths of all field corn and sorghum are treated with atrazine every year. It is also the most commonly detected pesticide in wells, streams, and rivers.(2)

EPA researchers have been studying atrazine's health hazards during the last five years and have made some frightening discoveries. In laboratory studies, female sex hormone cycles are disrupted by atrazine. In addition, if mother animals are treated with atrazine for the first nine days after they have given birth, there is an increase in the frequency of inflamed prostate glands in their adult male offspring (who were nursing during the time of the atrazine exposure). The number of miscarriages increases in laboratory animals exposed during early pregnancy. Both sexes enter puberty late if exposed to atrazine during prepuberty, and this delay is caused by alterations in the production of sex hormones.(3)

Despite these data from EPA's own scientists and their serious implications for children's health, the agency is giving a green light to this herbicide. EPA is accepting public comment about the preliminary risk assessment until April 16, 2001. The agency needs to hear from concerned people across the country that we don't need more exposure to this obsolete and dangerous chemical.

Send your comments to opp-docket@epa.gov.

References

(1) Goldman, L.R. 1996. Food Quality Protection Act of 1996: New directions in public health protection. Speech presented at a symposium sponsored by the American Crop Protection Association and McKenna & Cuneo. Washington, D.C., Sept. 10.

(2) U.S. EPA. Office of Pesticide Programs. Health Effects Div. 2001. Revised preliminary human health risk assessment: Atrazine. Washington, D.C., Jan. 19. p. 9.

(3) U.S. EPA. Office of Pesticide Programs. Health Effects Div. 2001. Atrazine: Toxicology disciplinary chapter for the reregistration eligibility decision. Washington, D.C., Jan. 18. Pp. 38-43.

EPA's atrazine documents are available on the web at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/atrazine/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

email by ebase(tm) v1.02. mailto:info@ebase.org, http://www.ebase.org

#9324567783-18-[].  Registered to Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Well Mr. Helliker, Robert Henri once said: "We are not here to do what has already been done."  Yet "someone" continues to "reregister"  these POISONS in spite of the fact that they are dangerous and there are safe and far more effective (unregistered) alternatives.  When will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use these alternatives?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten

---

(Editor's Note:  It flies in the face of logic, that the EPA may consider leaving this pesticide poison on the market.  Here's an excerpt from its own Evaluation of Carcinogenic Potential:

"Although atrazine might cause adverse effects on hypothalamic-pituitary function in humans, the hormonal environment conducive to tumor development (i.e., elevated or prolonged exposure to estrogen and prolactin) that is found in SD rats is not expected to occur in humans."

"Although possible associations between atrazine exposure and non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) and ovarian cancer have been reported in a few epidemiology studies, there is no supporting evidence or a sound argument of biological plausibility that these cancers may result from exposure to atrazine. Also, the lack of multiple confirming studies indicates that the human investigations by themselves do not make a strong case for an association between atrazine exposure and human cancer."

"It was the consensus of the SAP that atrazine should be classified as either "Not Likely to be Carcinogenic To Humans" or "Not Enough Information to Classify". The Panel also concluded that the MOA for atrazine carcinogenicity is not applicable to developing fetuses and children."

If the phrases "not expected to occur in humans", "lack of multiple confirming studies" and "not enough information" doesn't frighten you.  Then we all have to bend over and kiss ourselves good-by.  The EPA has apparently confused the Precautionary Principle with Profits before People]  

---

If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, Email Us. with "subscribe" in the subject line.