About Atrazine

Atrazine is a triazine herbicide currently registered for the control of grass and broadleaf weeds in crops such as sorghum, maize, sugarcane, lupins, pine and eucalypt plantations, and triazine tolerant (TT) canola. Atrazine was first registered for use in 1959 and EPA recently recommended its re-registration after a comprehensive, 10-year safety review.

A great deal of research has been undertaken investigating potential human health and ecological impacts of atrazine. The generally consistent findings flowing from this body of research have provided regulatory authorities around the world with some significant confidence that the chemical can be used safely, subject to a range of conditions.

Good quality, new scientific studies are evaluated against this data bank of existing research by scientific and regulatory agencies as they become available. Recent research suggesting adverse impacts on human health and on amphibians, for example, has gone through this process. To date, no international regulator has made adverse human health or environmental findings against atrazine.

Atrazine has been an essential part of farming for over 50 years.  At Syngenta, we are committed to the safe and effective use of atrazine and its importance to agriculture, jobs and the economy.

Due to its reliable performance and cost-effectiveness, growers feel confident using atrazine. And they value its compatibility with soil-saving conservation tillage and no-till farming.

To produce high-yield crops, farmers must control grasses and broadleaf weeds that rob the crop of water and nutrients. Atrazine protects crops better than other herbicides, because it controls a broad spectrum of weeds but is gentle to the crop itself. And, unlike many other herbicides, farmers can effectively apply atrazine before, during or after planting the crop, or even after crop emergence.

Atrazine is used on well over half of all U.S. corn acreage, about two-thirds of sorghum acreage and as much as 90 percent of U.S. sugar cane.

Atrazine is an economical choice for farmers.  Its low cost helps farmers maintain profitability.  EPA estimates that atrazine use saves farmers $28 per acre.