Details on Recent Atrazine Re-Approval Decision by the EPA

The recent EPA decision regarding the use of atrazine has come with wins for some places and major blows for the environment and communities across the continental US. We wanted to take this opportunity to explain more about the impacts of this recent decision. 

Atrazine will be banned in Hawai`i which is a huge win for our communities and environment. Thankfully the pesticide will be banned in Hawai`i as well as the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the North Mariana Islands. The use of this cancer-linked pesticide will also be prohibited along U.S. roadsides and on conifers on public and private lands, including forests and Christmas tree farms.

The pesticide’s largest manufacturer, Syngenta, agreed to the prohibitions in the wake of a legal agreement between the EPA and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and as part of the EPA’s re-approval of atrazine use in the US. The agreement also requires the agency to complete an analysis of atrazine’s impacts on the nation’s endangered species.

“This is a massive victory for the people exposed to this dangerous endocrine disruptor simply because they live near fields or forests sprayed with it,” said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the CBD. “The last thing anyone imagines, when they live near a forest or bring a Christmas tree home to their living room, is that they’re signing up for atrazine exposure. Now they won’t have to, and neither will the salmon, frogs and fish.”

The legal pressures placed on the EPA by the CBD and PANNA have made the case that the use of atrazine in the islands is too risky and too detrimental. This decision is a powerful display of the importance and power of the Endangered Species Act.

However, in this ruling on the re-approval of atrazine in the US is a huge blow to the health of communities and the environment in America. The ruling is based on rolling back the FQPA safety factor for kids. This means 50% more atrazine can be used in the US following this EPA decision. Please keep in mind that atrazine has been banned in the EU for nearly two decades.

This decision means many more people across the US will get exposed and sick - especially in the Midwest given widespread use of Atrazine there.

The Center for Biological Diversity Press Releases about this recent decision are available here: 

September 23rd 2020 - Endocrine-disrupting Pesticide Atrazine to Be Banned in Hawaii, Five U.S. Territories, Prohibited on Conifers, Roadsides

September 18th 2020 - EPA Scraps Protections for Children From Pesticide Linked to Birth Defects, Cancer - 50% More Atrazine to Be Allowed in U.S. Waterways

PC: Huffpost - Hawaii Is ‘The Endangered Species Capital Of The World’

The reality is, the islands contain so much biodiversity and so many federally protected endangered species, that there’s no way they could authorize continued atrazine use without jeopardizing the continued existence of the endangered species in these areas, but at the cost of the continent and areas where there are less endangered species. 

While they call this a ‘voluntary decision’ that comes with the re-approval by the EPA, they’re just doing what the law will undoubtedly force them to do, while trying to score some brownie points for doing it “voluntarily” and without having to go through the process of exposing the evidence of the threats and damage to endangered species populations in these areas. The areas where atrazine can continue to be used doesn’t have nearly as many listed species, so it’s not as cut and dry. The fight continues to protect those areas, the children that grow up in them and the communities that will now be even more exposed.  

Overall this is a bad decision by the EPA and perpetuates the use of this cancer-causing chemical in the US. However, it is at the same time amazing news for the people of Hawai`i and all of the fragile flora, fauna and marine species here in the islands.

The process itself, like so many we have gone through with these corporations, is shaded with motives, loop holes and vested interest. For example, Syngenta was given the opportunity to voluntarily cancel atrazine in these key areas (like Hawai`i) before being formally banned in which the process would have required the data on atrazine's impacts on endangered species be presented. Syngenta’s decision to voluntarily agree to prohibitions on atrazine comes as a 2021 deadline approaches by which the EPA must complete an analysis of the pesticide’s impacts on endangered species, as required by the agreement with the conservation groups. So while it is a good and protective move for people in Hawai‘i, it was undertaken for the wrong reason and suggests that the corporations know the impacts of their toxic chemicals and the threats they pose to the health of our people and environment.

Research has linked atrazine to birth defects and cancer in people, and even very small doses can chemically castrate frogs. The following information from the CBD gives us more of an idea about some of the impacts of this decision. 

• In 2012, 77,000 pounds of atrazine were used in the state of Hawaii. 

• Atrazine metabolites were the most commonly detected pesticide contaminants in surface water samples on Kauai and Oahu in 2016 and 2017, present in two-thirds of all water samples collected by the U.S. Geological Survey.

• Atrazine has been banned or is being phased out in more than 35 countries but is the second-most commonly used herbicide in the United States.

• A 2009 survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that atrazine was the third-most highly used herbicide on Christmas tree farms, accounting for more than 22,000 pounds each year in just six surveyed states. 

• In Oregon atrazine use on forest lands has generated deep concern among communities that fear for their health and the health of aquatic animals.

• The EPA’s agreement with conservation groups to assess atrazine’s harm to endangered species came after an earlier “preliminary risk assessment” found that the amount of the pesticide released into the environment in the United States is likely to be harming most species of protected plants and animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles.

A huge thank you to the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network for their ongoing commitment to protecting communities and endangered species from exposure to pesticides such as atrazine.