Atrazine Human Health Risk Assessment Now Available for Public Comment

For Release: July 26, 2018

Today, EPA is releasing the atrazine draft human health risk assessment for public comment. The assessment identifies potential risks to children who crawl and play on lawns sprayed with atrazine and to workers who apply atrazine and/or enter treated fields after application.

Atrazine is one of the most widely used agricultural pesticides in the United States. It is used to control broadleaf and grassy weeds on corn, sorghum, and sugarcane, and to a lesser extent on residential lawns and golf courses. In the assessment, EPA reviewed all available scientific data, including published toxicity and epidemiology literature. The assessment uses multiple lines of evidence and methodologies that reflect current science.

In addition to the atrazine draft human health risk assessment, EPA is also releasing the simazine and propazine draft human health risk assessments and a cumulative human health risk assessment on these three triazines. We assessed these three pesticides together for human health risks because they share a common toxicity mechanism.

Comments must be submitted to docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2013-0266 at www.regulations.gov on or before Sept. 24, 2018.

After public comments on the human health and the 2016 ecological assessments are reviewed, EPA will determine whether updates or revisions to the assessments are necessary. EPA plans to propose risk mitigation measures, if necessary, in 2019.