U.S. EPA scrutiny of atrazine re-emerges

The Interim Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED) for cumulative risk assessment of chlorinated triazine class herbicides was recently completed and results announced by the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency as mandated by the legal process of the court case of Natural Resources Defense Council v. Whitman.

The “cumulative risks associated with these (group) pesticides are below the agency’s (EPA’s) level of concern,” it was noted. Considering the regulatory documents under which the products including propazine, simazine and atrazine were assessed, the herbicides meet safety standards, EPA further noted.

But the EPA issued the statement that requirements and findings for reregistration of each individual product must be successfully completed. Revision associated with the Jan. 31, 2003, IRED is staying in place.

Also, along with the assessment of atrazine, Syngenta issued a statement related to the EPA Environmental Fate and Effects Division’s (EFED) preliminary report on the ecological assessment of the herbicide.

Syngenta contends that the EPA used studies its own 2012 Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) saw as flawed and the EFED division did not use the “best available data, instead recommending a lower, more restrictive LOC (level of concern) for atrazine in aquatic communities than is dictated by the science.”

Syngenta’s case for safety of atrazine is based about history. The company says, “Atrazine is one of the most closely examined pesticides in the world and its safety has been established in nearly 7,000 scientific studies over the past 50 years.”