During the past half-century, atrazine has become one of the most widely used herbicides in Minnesota and the Midwest. Unfortunately, it is also at the top of the list in another category: most commonly detected pesticide in our state’s surface and groundwater. Atrazine contamination has been found in agricultural communities from southeast Minnesota to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That’s a concern when one considers there is an increasing body of science showing that exposure to the herbicide, at even extremely low levels, pose significant health risks to humans and animals. That’s why it is so key that the Environmental Protection Agency’s current review of atrazine’s safety be based on science and what’s good for the public.
A report released Jan. 5 by the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) and Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN) documents Syngenta’s efforts to undermine what was supposed to be a thorough, transparent regulatory review of atrazine earlier this decade. The report, “The Syngenta Corporation & Atrazine: The Cost to the Land, People & Democracy,” documents how the EPA review process that led to atrazine’s U.S. re-approval in 2003 was marred by closed-door meetings involving the Syngenta corporation and EPA officials. That review was also characterized by a lack of independent research and suppression of science that showed significant health and environmental problems associated with the herbicide.
The current EPA review of atrazine was launched in October and will continue until fall 2010. This review is a chance for EPA to get it right and to use science in the public’s best interest.
One way to get it right is for government decision makers, as well as the public, to ignore claims that atrazine is an irreplaceable corn production tool. As the report shows, farmers right here in Minnesota are raising corn without the controversial herbicide, as are farmers in the European Union, where atrazine is banned. Wisconsin remains a top corn producing state, despite some of the toughest atrazine restrictions in the nation. Farmers are too innovative to allow one production tool to limit their choices when it comes to raising a crop.
The LSP/PAN report does not call for an outright ban of atrazine or any other herbicide. Many LSP farmer-members use pesticides in their cropping operations. But that means they rely on the EPA to use a transparent process when registering pesticides, one that is guided by science and focuses on protection of human health and the environment as well as production considerations.
