MN Farmers Call on EPA for Safety Review of Weed Killer
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January 5, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS - Several midwestern farm groups are pleading with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take a closer, science-driven look at the weed killer atrazine. A new report states the chemical has been found in the water supply and poses a health danger. The report also claims that atrazine-maker Syngenta met behind closed doors with the EPA during its last review of atrazine, one of the world's top-selling herbicides, raising some red flags.
Paul Sobocinski, who is with the Land Stewardship Project - which issued the report along with the Pesticide Action Network - and is a farmer in southwestern Minnesota, says the EPA needs to make protecting the health of farmers and the public a priority, since the report says atrazine is one of the most commonly-detected pesticides in ground and surface water.
"Example: Between 1998 and 2003, seven million people were exposed to atrazine in their treated drinking water, at levels above state or federal health-based limits."
Sobocinski says studies have shown atrazine is linked to breast and prostate cancer, among other health concerns. He adds that when he learned of that link he stopped using the chemical on his own crops.
Syngenta has long defended atrazine's safety, declaring that it is one of the best-studied herbicides available and citing previous safety reviews by the EPA and World Health Organization.
Sobocinski says it is possible to have thriving crops without the use of atrazine, as there are alternatives. He says that, with the right data, farmers will make solid decisions.
"We need better information about the products that we do have to use on our farms, about being able to make a good decision about how it affects not only our health but also the health of others."
An EPA scientific panel will meet in early February to consider and review atrazine.
The report is online at www.landstewardshipproject.org