EPA Accepts Atrazine Recommendations

The Environmental Protection Agency agreed with recommendations from its Scientific Advisory Panel on atrazine. The recommendations remove several poor-quality studies that played a role in the agency’s recommendation for an ultra-low aquatic level of concern for atrazine.

The SAP was held in 2023 at the request of agriculture groups active in the Triazine Network. The panel considered EPA’s white paper and stakeholder comments to exclude or rescore several questionable studies used to set the aquatic concentration equivalent level of concern. The panel’s scientists appreciated the farmers and agriculture representatives who testified on the real-world benefits and necessities of atrazine as well as the real-world consequences of EPA’s proposed decisions.

One of the Triazine Networks’ co-chairs says hearing directly from the people using the product was a key component of the SAP. The Triazine Network is a coalition of agriculture organizations and producers advocating for science-based decisions on Triazine herbicides like atrazine.