EPA to review sugar cane herbicide atrazine

Federal scientists will reopen a study Monday of the health effects of a weed-killer vital to sugar-cane farming, one of Floridas most important crops.
The Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly approved atrazine, a widely used herbicide around corn, sorghum and sugar cane. Atrazine is used on 90 percent of all sugar cane, and farmers would lose 10 to 40 percent of their crop if unable to use it, according to congressional supporters.

But academic studies have suggested links between atrazine in drinking water with birth defects in people and reproductive defects in frogs. The European Union banned atrazine in 2003. Now the EPA is taking another look.

"This is a chance for EPA to get it right and use science in the publics best interest," said Tyrone Hayes, a biologist at the University of California-Berkley who has studied gender changes in frogs exposed to atrazine.

Syngenta AG, the company that manufactures atrazine, disputed the studies. Atrazine has been on the market for 50 years. The EPA renewed its approval in 2003 and reviewed it again in 2006.

"A large number of rigorous scientific animal studies have consistently shown that atrazine does not cause birth defects and does not cause reproductive defects," the company said in a February statement.

The EPA, which noted criticism of its approval process, announced in November that it would conduct a comprehensive review of atrazine. During meetings Monday through Thursday, the EPA will review scientific studies on animals and community drinking water. More studies will be presented in September, with regulatory changes possible after that.

"Under this administration, EPA is committed to ensuring the health and safety of all Americans," Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, said in announcing the review. "We will continue to closely track new scientific developments and will determine whether a change in our regulatory position is appropriate."

Sugar cane is the states fifth most valuable agricultural commodity, with communities such as Clewiston and Belle Glade, both east of Fort Myers, at the heart of the industry.

Florida grew $442 million worth of sugar cane in 2008, when the state provided more than half the value grown nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, urged the EPA to give a fair scientific review to the herbicide that received "good reviews" from the World Health Organization and the National Cancer Institute.

"Less than four years ago, the EPA completed an exhaustive risk assessment of atrazine, finding that this class of herbicides poses no harm that would result to the general U.S. population, infants, children or other major identifiable subgroups of consumers," Boyd wrote to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on March 23.

Advocacy groups faced off on both sides of the dispute.

The Land Stewardship Project and the Pesticide Action Network North America raised concerns about the 2003 approval of atrazine because Syngenta met with regulators repeatedly.

Meanwhile, the EPA found atrazine levels above the federal drinking-water standard in 94 of 136 public water systems monitored in 10 states from 2003-05.

"Further, it is worrisome that a large and growing body of science is showing atrazine is linked to birth defects, breast cancer, prostate cancer and other human health concerns," the groups wrote Jackson on Jan. 5.

But dozens of agricultural associations, including the American Sugarcane League and the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, called the criticism an "unfounded political attack."