Weed killer in the crosshairs
By Janet Raloff
Concerns prompt
reexamination of
atrazine’s safety
Each year, American farmers and turf managers apply some 34 million kilograms of atra- zine to quash broad-leaved and grassy weeds. Most treatments go to protect corn, sorghum, sugar-cane and cotton, though golf courses
sometimes tap the weed killer to maintain
immaculate fairways and putting greens.
In recent years, however, questions
have surfaced about atrazine’s safety,
especially after monitoring programs
picked up the chemical in drinking
water and lab studies demonstrated the
pollutant’s ability to emasculate —if
not deform — amphibians and fish. Last
fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency announced it was reopening
