Lawsuit Challenges EPA Reapproval of Atrazine

Public-interest groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency last week over its decision to reapprove atrazine. 

The groups claim atrazine is linked to birth defects and cancer in humans. 

The lawsuit contends that the agency failed in its legal duty to ensure that the pesticide would not cause unreasonable harm to public health and the environment. 

An attorney for the Center for Food Safety says, “We are in court to make sure EPA answers for its blatant disregard of the lives of our nation’s farmworkers and their children.” 

The lawsuit also challenges the EPA’s reapprovals of two other pesticides in the triazine class, which were part of the same review process as atrazine. 

Farm groups welcomed the September reapproval announcement made in Missouri. 

At the time, Missouri Natural Resources Department Director Carol Comer stated, “EPA is using sound science to make decisions that protect children and workers, provide predictability and flexibility for our agricultural producers, and protect the environment.”

(Story Courtesy of the NAFB News Service)