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Atrazine Safety

Syngenta stands firmly behind the safety of atrazine. There are no known human health effects from the recommended use of this herbicide — a tool farmers have used safely for 50 years.

With more than 6,000 studies on file, atrazine is one of the most comprehensively scrutinized and used herbicides.  After exhaustive studies by and for the Environmental Protection Agency and other international health and regulatory bodies, here is what it has found to be true about atrazine:

  • Atrazine does not cause cancer in humans.
  • Atrazine does not cause adverse effects to reproductive systems.
  • Atrazine does not cause birth defects.
  • Atrazine does not affect genetic development.
  • Atrazine does not affect chromosome structure.
  • Atrazine is not estrogenic.
  • Atrazine does not disrupt endocrine function.

For the latest information on atrazine safety visit Atrazine.com.

 

Here is what the regulators say:

 

“The APVMA has not seen any direct evidence that current uses of atrazine pose a risk to human health. Indeed, extensive studies in laboratory animals show that there are no effects on health or reproduction in mammals maintained on drinking water containing atrazine and related compounds at low levels. Even at concentrations up to 100 times the levels that can sometimes be found in groundwater in the USA, laboratory test results indicate there were no toxic effects on the animals, their progeny or their ability to reproduce.”

Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority, Final Review Report & Regulatory Decision, Volume 1, 2008


“…[P]ublished epidemiological data provide no support for the carcinogenicity potential of atrazine…it is unlikely that atrazine is an endocrine disruptor in humans.”

Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority, Final Review Report & Regulatory Decision,

Volume 2, 2008


“The Meeting concluded that atrazine is not likely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.”

Report of the Joint Meeting of the FAO Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues in Food and the Environment and the WHO Core Assessment Group on Pesticide Residues, Geneva, Switzerland, 18-27 September 2007


“The Agency has determined that, with label amendments and changes as specified in this document and the 2003 IRED [Interim Registration Eligibility Decision] for atrazine, there is a reasonable certainty that no harm will result to the general U.S. population, infants, children, or other major identifiable subgroups of consumers, from the use of simazine, atrazine, and propazine.”

Re-registration Eligibility Decision for Simazine, U.S. EPA, EPA 738-R-06-008, April 2006


“We found no associations between cancer incidence and atrazine exposure….” Other studies showed no associations between atrazine exposure and specifically breast and prostate cancer.

Agricultural Health Study, 2003, 2004 and 2005, National Cancer Institute, University of Iowa, Centers for Public Health Research & Evaluation, U.S. EPA, National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, IMS Inc.


“These and other additional analysis did not support a finding of association between prostate cancer and atrazine exposure.”

U.S. EPA, 2004, in evaluating a study conducted with workers at an atrazine manufacturing plant.

“…[T]he epidemiological data provided support for the absence of a carcinogenic potential for atrazine.”

Australian Pesticides & Veterinary Medicines Authority, 2004


“EPA concludes that atrazine is ‘not likely to be a human carcinogen.'”

U.S. EPA, Revised Atrazine Interim Re-registration Eligibility Decision, October 31, 2003


Atrazine is deemed “not classifiable as to carcinogenicity to humans,” placing it in the same cancer risk category as substances such as tea, rubbing alcohol and talc.

World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, 1998


“It is expected that the use of atrazine, consistent with good plant protection practice, will not have any harmful effects on human or animal health or any unacceptable effects on the environment.”

Comment from a science review conducted for the European Union, Scientific Committee on Plants, United Kingdom, 1996