Description
Atrazine is a pre- and post-emergent herbicide in the triazine family (which also includes simazine and propazine). Atrazine is used to kill both broadleaf and grassy weeds. It is the second most widely used herbicide in the United States, after glyphosate. Atrazine is mainly used in agriculture. The greatest use of atrazine by far is on corn.
Besides corn, its primary uses are on sugarcane and on residential lawns in Florida and the Southeast. Other agricultural applications include sorghum, as well as minor crops such as guava, hay, macadamia nuts, pasture grasses, and winter wheat. Other non-agricultural uses include golf courses, rangeland, landscape maintenance, ornamental trees, forests, Christmas trees, recreational areas, right-of-ways, and industrial areas. Currently, the heaviest atrazine uses are in the Midwest farm region.
Once in the environment, atrazine is slow to break down in soil and water. As a result, it is frequently detected as a contaminant in streams, rivers, lakes and drinking water, particularly in the Midwest. Contamination is usually highest in agricultural areas in the spring, when atrazine use peaks and large amounts of the herbicide run off in rain into surface water.
Due to health and environmental concerns,. The European Union has banned atrazine.
Due to its ability to disrupt the endocrine system and interfere with hormones, atrazine has been linked to limb deformities, abnormal sexual changes, weakened immune systems, and declining populations of frogs and amphibians. While atrazine can cause sexual abnormalities in several species, frogs are especially sensitive. Scientists have found that frogs exposed to atrazine have multiple, mixed gonads and become demasculinized.
Health Effects
Immediate Health Effects
- If SWALLOWED, atrazine is Moderately Toxic
- If ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN, atrazine is Moderately Toxic
- If INHALED (SNIFFED OR BREATHED IN), atrazine is Moderately Toxic
Longterm or Delayed Health Effects
- This chemical is considered an Unclassifiable Carcinogen by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or another agency.
- Suspected Endocrine Disruptor = May interfere with, mimic or block hormones at low levels of exposure.
Other
- Research in the midwestern United States shows that men with elevated exposures to atrazine, alachlor and diazinon are much more likely to have reduced sperm quality. Reduced sperm counts, decreased sperm motility, and prostate inflammation have been observed in male laboratory rats exposed to atrazine.
- Short-term exposure to high levels of atrazine may cause irritation of eyes, skin and mucous membranes. High doses in animals cause damage to the liver, kidney, and heart.
- Can disrupt the immune system.
- One study found an association between maternal exposure to triazine herbicides in drinking water and increased incidence of developmental effects in newborns, including low birth weight, heart, urinary and limb defects. Some studies have found increased rates of pre-term delivery in couples living on farms that use atrazine.
- Atrazine has been linked to breast and prostate cancer.
- Induces abortion in laboratory animals. There are also studies suggesting that human miscarriages increase in women exposed to atrazine.
- Research has shown that atrazine turns frogs into hermaphrodites and lowers testosterone levels in males.
How Exposures Occur
Drinking Water
- Children can ingest atrazine from contaminated drinking water, particularly in areas where corn is grown. Atrazine is one of the most commonly detected pesticides in drinking water, especially in spring, when agricultural runoff peaks. It can enter surface waters through runoff and rain, in which atrazine collects due to evaporation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 200 community water systems where atrazine levels have approached or exceeded EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level of 3 parts per billion. Water from private wells may also be contaminated where atrazine is used. Pregnant women who consume water contaminated with atrazine may expose their babies.
Pesticide Application and Drift
- Children can inhale atrazine when spray drifts from neighboring corn, sorghum or sugarcane fields or golf courses, or when it is being applied on home lawns and gardens. They can touch atrazine on lawns that have recently been sprayed.
Soil
- Children may be exposed to atrazine by digging or playing in soil that has atrazine in it. Atrazine may persist in soil from several months up to a year after it has been applied.
Occupational
- Children of farm workers and pesticide applicators are exposed to higher amounts of atrazine and other pesticides, which can enter the home on clothing, shoes and other items. Occupational exposures of parents before and during pregnancy may impact their babies.
House Dust
- Low levels of atrazine have been detected in carpet and house dust in homes in the Midwest, where atrazine use is highest.
Food
- Atrazine residues are occasionally found in food samples, but at low levels beneath those that the EPA considers a health concern.
Significant Statistics
Atrazine is the second most widely used herbicide in the U.S. Between 74-80 million pounds of atrazine (active ingredient) are used each year in the U.S.
Pesticide Industry Sales and Usage: 2000-2001 Market Estimates. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, May 2004.http://www.epa.gov/oppbead1/pestsales/index.htm
Atrazine is removed from air mainly by rainfall, and can be blown on dust particles long distances from where it is applied. Atrazine has been found in rainwater more than 180 miles from the nearest application area.
Public Health Statement for Atrazine. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, September 2003.http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs153.html
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified 200 community water systems where atrazine has been detected at levels that approached or exceeded the agency’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). Of the 200, eight community water systems have annual average readings that significantly exceed the MCL.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Atrazine Interim Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED) Q&A’s. January 2003.http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/atrazine.htm#q1
Atrazine is the most common ground and surface water pesticide contaminant in farm states.
The Syngenta Corporation & Atrazine: The Cost to the Land, People & Democracy. January 2010. http://www.panna.org/files/AtrazineReportJan2010.pdf.
65-75 million pounds of atrazine are applied in the United States every year.
Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Department of Health and Human Services. July 2005.
http://pi.ace.orst.edu/search/showPDF.s;jsessionid=8799B2D4CCB61C9962013591A0F941B0?docNum=3#xml=http://pi.ace.orst.edu/search/pdfHL.s?docNum=3
Solutions
How to detect atrazine
- Read labels and ask lawn care professionals what they plan on using in and around your home. Ask them for a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which lists safety information and active ingredients, for the products used. You can also find out if atrazine is an ingredient in a pesticide product through the Pesticide Action Network Pesticides Database. Or, search for atrazine in the National Library of Medicine’s Household Products Database to find a list of brands that contain it.
- Atrazine is regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This law requires that community water systems monitor atrazine levels, and inform the public when levels exceed the set Maximum Contamination Level (MCL). The MCL for atrazine is 3 parts per billion.
Community water systems are required to produce annual consumer confidence reports and mail them to every water customer. See Safe Drinking Water: What’s a Consumer Confidence Report for more information.
If your water source is a well, your water is not monitored for contaminants as is required for public water supplies by the Safe Drinking Water Act. Private testing of your water is necessary.
Even if your water comes from a community water system, contaminant levels can vary from house to house. You can have your water tested by sending samples to a certified laboratory. For more information on how to test your water, see Safe Drinking Water: Testing Your Water.
You can search for water quality reports from your water provider, obtain information on well water testing and find a list of state-certified drinking water laboratories at the U.S. EPA’s Office of Water’s website or call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline, 800-426-4791.
- Home water testing kits are available for atrazine and simazine for $15-20. You can find them on the Internet and in some hardware stores. Since atrazine is applied in late winter and early spring, this is the best time to test.
How to minimize exposure to atrazine
- Contact your local sanitation department or hazardous waste disposal program to find out how to dispose of pesticides properly. Earth 911 lists hazardous waste disposal sites by zip code, 1-800-CLEANUP.
- To avoid tracking pesticides into the house, where they can become embedded in carpets, always remove shoes at the door or wipe shoes on door mats before entering your home. To minimize exposure to pesticides and other pollutants that collect in household dust, vacuum carpets, mop floors, and damp-wipe dusty surfaces weekly, especially in homes with small children, who spend much of their time on the floor.
- If testing of your water reveals high levels of atrazine, you can filter your tap water. Some, but not all, carbon-based water filters, commonly available in grocery stores as pitchers or faucet mounts, can remove atrazine from drinking water; check product labels for lists of contaminants removed.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers should only drink tested tap water or filtered water in high risk areas (see above).
To avoid exposing infants, feed only breast milk or a formula mixed with purified water.
- Children in agricultural regions should avoid playing, digging or swimming in waterways near fields that have recently been sprayed.
Alternatives
- Adopt Integrated Pest Management, instead of resorting to herbicides for weed removal. For information on IPM, see Pest Control without Pesticides.
Remove garden weeds by hand; mulch the soil around garden plants to prevent weeds from sprouting. Diversify landscaping to reduce turf grass. See also How to Kill Weeds Without Herbicides.
- Maintaining a healthy lawn is your best defense against weedy invaders. For more information about how to accomplish this, consult the resources below.
For More information
Books, articles, factsheets and reports
Fagin, Dan, Marianne Lavelle, and the Center for Public Integrity. Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health. Secaucus, New Jersey: Birch Lane Press, 1996.
Lewis, Charles, et al. Unreasonable Risk: The Politics of Pesticides. Washington DC: The Center for Public Integrity, 1998.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/assets/pdf/UNREASONABLERISK.pdf.
Cox, Caroline. “Managing Weeds at Home and in Our Communities,” Journal of Pesticide Reform, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 1997).
http://www.pesticide.org/managing.pdf
The Syngenta Corporation & Atrazine: The Cost to the Land, People & Democracy. January 2010.
http://www.panna.org/files/AtrazineReportJan2010.pdf.
Cox, Caroline. “Atrazine: Toxicology,” Journal of Pesticide Reform, Vol. 21, No.2 (Summer 2001)
http://www.pesticide.org/atrazine.pdf
Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals. Department of Health and Human Services. July 2005.
http://pi.ace.orst.edu/search/showPDF.s;jsessionid=8799B2D4CCB61C9962013591A0F941B0?docNum=3#xml=http://pi.ace.orst.edu/search/pdfHL.s?docNum=3.
Other government agencies
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Pesticide Programs
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20460
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides
National Pesticide Information Center
Oregon State University
333 Weniger Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-6502
800-858-7378
http://npic.orst.edu/
Nonprofit organizations
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP)
P.O. Box 1393
Eugene, OR 97440
541-344-5044
http://www.pesticide.org
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-2700
http://www.nrdc.org
Other websites
Our Stolen Future
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org
