EWG Says Infant Exposure to Atrazine Underestimated

Aug. 17, 1999

The Environmental Working Group says the herbicide atrazine is polluting tap water in almost 800 Midwestern communities, and the federal government has underestimated exposure by 15 times for infants fed formula mixed with tap water.

EWG says the Environmental Protection Agency, World Health Organization and the manufacturer, Novartis, "all agree that the chemical causes cancer in laboratory animals. Further studies of the toxic weed killer also show that it causes an increase in breast cancer, lymphoma, leukemia and female reproductive tissue cancer."

Atrazine is used extensively on corn in the Midwest. EWG says after it is applied each spring, it runs off crop land through water treatment plants and "contaminates the tap water of millions of Midwestern homes."

EWG President Ken cook says atrazine should be banned by the EPA.

The report says atrazine is applied to 50 million acres a year with contaminated tap water found in 796 towns in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Further, drinking water polluted by atrazine is consumed by about 10.5 million people.

"Some tap water is so contaminated that infants get their lifetime limit of atrazine before they are four months old, says EWG. "In 40 towns, infants get their lifetime dose of atrazine by their first birthdays. The government has completely ignored this front-loading in calculating safe exposure levels."

Novartis Crop Protection, Inc., manufacturer of atrazine said the EWG report
was an attempt attempt to raise "unfounded fears among Midwestern families." 
The report, titled "Into the Mouths of Babes" might better be titled "Out of
the Mouths of Alarmists,' said Dave Whitacre, senior vice president of
science for Novartis. 'The fact is that levels of atrazine cited in the EWG
report do not put infants, children or adults at risk. Parents have no reason
to fear the safety of the drinking water in their communities. The EWG has
misrepresented scientific facts to attempt to create panic among American
parents.'

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is actively working
on an updated and comprehensive scientific review of atrazine, particularly
in regard to the safety of children.  In fact, even under the new Food
Quality Protection Act (FQPA) guidelines, infants could consume more than
1,000 times the volume of water with the highest atrazine concentrations
indicated in the EWG report and still be well within stringent, established
safety margins, Novartis says.

The report is available on the Internet at http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/reports/mouthsofbabes/mouthsofbabes.html.