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CHEMICAL SUMMARY
This is only a brief summary of information about this chemical.
For more detailed information, see Full Chemical Profile. |
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 atrazine
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Common Names: atrazine
Atrazine is a pre- and post-emergent herbicide in the triazine family (which also includes simazine and propazine). Atrazine is used to kill both broadleaf and grassy weeds. It is the second most widely used herbicide in the United States, after glyphosate. Atrazine is mainly used in agriculture. The greatest use of atrazine by far is on corn.
Besides corn, its primary uses are on sugarcane and on residential lawns in Florida and the Southeast. Other agricultural applications include sorghum, as well as minor crops such as guava, hay, macadamia nuts, pasture grasses, and winter wheat. Other non-agricultural uses include golf courses, rangeland, landscape maintenance, ornamental trees, forests, Christmas trees, recreational areas, right-of-ways, and industrial areas. Currently, the heaviest atrazine uses per unit area occur in portions of Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Nebraska.
Once in the environment, atrazine is slow to break down in soil and water. As a result, it is frequently detected as a contaminant in streams, rivers, lakes and drinking water, particularly in the Midwest. Contamination is usually highest in agricultural areas in the spring, when atrazine use peaks and large amounts of the herbicide run off in rain into surface water.
Due to health and environmental concerns, several European countries have banned atrazine. The European Union has announced it will ban atrazine in 2005.
Due to its ability to disrupt the endocrine system and interfere with hormones, atrazine has been linked to limb deformities, abnormal sexual changes, weakened immune systems, and declining populations of frogs and amphibians. While atrazine can cause sexual abnormalities in several species, frogs are especially sensitive. Scientists have found that frogs exposed to atrazine have multiple, mixed gonads and become demasculinized -- at levels 10,000-30,000 times lower than levels previously thought to be non-toxic to frogs. Although counterintuitive, there is a body of evidence showing that atrazine and other hormonally active compounds are most damaging at trace concentrations.
Infants and children are primarily exposed through drinking water. They could aslo be exposed during and after applications as the result of drift of the pesticide on air currents or from pesticide deposited in soil.
The chemical atrazine is ranked as  Orange for Warning. We recommend that you avoid exposure. | |
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| Remember, the health effects noted in these profiles assume exposure to the pure form of the substance. The risk you face is affected by how much of the substance you are exposed to, its concentration, its form, the timing of the exposure (when and how long exposure occurs), other substances your child is exposed to, and his or her own individual sensitivity, which in turn can be influenced by age, sex, health status, and genetic make-up. |
 | Immediate Health Effects
| If SWALLOWED, atrazine is Moderately Toxic. |
| If ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN, atrazine is Moderately Toxic. |
| If INHALED (SNIFFED OR BREATHED IN), atrazine is Moderately Toxic. |
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| Longterm or Delayed Health Effects
| This chemical It is considered a Unclassifiable Carcinogen by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or another agency. |
| Suspected Endocrine Disruptor = May interfere with, mimic or block hormones |
Learn More About These Classifications
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| Other
| Short-term exposure to high levels of atrazine may cause irritation of eyes, skin and mucous membranes. High doses in animals cause damage to the liver, kidney, and heart. |
| One study found an association between maternal exposure to triazine  herbicides in drinking water and increased incidence of developmental effects in newborns, including low birth weight. Some studies have found increased rates of pre-term delivery in couples living on farms that use atrazine. |
| Research in the midwestern United States shows that men with elevated exposures to atrazine, alachlor and diazinon are much more likely to have reduced sperm quality. Reduced sperm counts, decreased sperm motility, and prostate inflammation have been observed in male laboratory rats exposed to atrazine. |
| Atrazine caused breast tumors in one species of rat, but not in other species tested in the laboratory. Some epidemiological studies have suggested possible links between atrazine exposure and other types of cancer, but no cause-effect relationship has been established. Some scientists believe that atrazine does not cause cancer directly, but that exposure before birth can prolong and/or increase the susceptibility to cancer-causing chemicals by altering hormonal signals and the development of breast tissue and other reproductive tissues. |
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