An End to Atrazine

In many ways, the Obama administration has thus far been a serious disappointment to environmentalists: The president has endorsed notoriously bad environmental ideas including "clean coal" and nuclear power and has failed to bring about desperately needed greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

But many still pin hope on Obama's well-funded EPA and its head, Lisa Jackson.

Jackson has launched a revamp of the wet-noodle Toxic Substances Control Act. And, admittedly with some pressure from the NRDC and an attention-grabbing investigative series from the New York Times, the EPA has announced that it will re-evaluate its position on the dangerous weed killer atrazine.

Atrazine is the most widely used weed killer in the United States. It is notorious for seeping into groundwater supplies and can be carried up to 600 miles on the wind. And studies suggest that even in low concentrations it causes low sperm count in men and increases the chances of breast cancer and fertility problems in women, and birth defects and low birth weight in fetuses — which can, in turn, cause death. (In a choice bit of corporate Machiavellianism, atrazine's manufacturer's parent company, Novartis, makes a breast cancer drug that treats precisely the kind of cancer atrazine is likely to cause.)

According to the NRDC, it's even not a particularly effective herbicide, despite over-compensating brand names like Bicep II Magnum. Even the USDA concedes that banning atrazine would reduce agricultural productivity by just 1.2 percent.

Until recently, the EPA was part of the problem, failing to monitor the water supply sufficiently and to notify the public when levels were too high.

A former employee of atrazine's maker, Syngenta, has turned whistle blower and has this to say about the poison: "Who really wants to take the chance, when so much is at risk? Who wants that in their backyard? If it were up to me as a citizen and a scientist, atrazine would be gone. It's a no-brainer."

Will Jackson's EPA change course and ban atrazine, as the European Union has done? It's hard to say, but a letter could certainly help make the case.

Photo credit: IRRI Images