Fighting the Toxic Pesticide Atrazine
Atrazine is the second most used pesticide in the U.S. and is commonly used for both agriculture and landscaping. It is notorious for the significant risks it poses to human health and the environment, particularly to aquatic species.
What is Atrazine?
Atrazine is the second most commonly used pesticide in the U.S., with 65-85 million pounds applied each year despite being banned in more than 40 other countries. Used primarily on corn, atrazine is also used on lawns, school grounds, golf courses, etc., and is often mixed with fertilizers in “weed and feed” products.
Atrazine is one of the most well-studied pesticides because of its extensive use as a weed-killer and the significant risks it poses to human health and the environment. Its chief manufacturer is Syngenta, which was acquired by ChemChina in 2017.
Atrazine Litigation
Center for Food Safety has worked for years to hold the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accountable for its regulation of atrazine, one of the most widely used and controversial pesticides in the United States.
Despite extensive scientific evidence linking atrazine to harm to human health, aquatic ecosystems, amphibians, fish, and endangered species, EPA has repeatedly reapproved the pesticide while weakening important safeguards intended to protect people and the environment.
In 2020, EPA reauthorized atrazine through its registration review process despite its own findings that the pesticide poses significant risks to aquatic plants and wildlife. The decision weakened key protections, including raising allowable levels of atrazine in waterways and eliminating certain monitoring requirements.
Center for Food Safety and our allies challenged EPA’s flawed assessments and approvals through a 2020 lawsuit, scientific comments, and ongoing legal and policy advocacy. CFS has argued that EPA failed to adequately evaluate atrazine’s impacts on human health, endangered species, and aquatic ecosystems as required by federal law.
In 2025, CFS joined conservation organizations and family farmers in seeking court action to compel EPA to implement meaningful protections against atrazine pollution and address widespread contamination of U.S. waterways.
Through litigation, administrative advocacy, and scientific review, Center for Food Safety continues to fight for stronger safeguards for public health, endangered species, waterways, and communities harmed by atrazine contamination.
Atrazine's Impacts and Our Work
Atrazine is extremely harmful to the environment, with impacts to a wide range of plants and animals. Its harmful impacts to amphibians and fish are particularly well documented, with reduced reproductive capacity and reduced chances of survival. Even very low levels of atrazine can impair sexual development in tadpoles, leading to hermaphroditism and demasculinization, and induce chemical castration in adult frogs. Atrazine also impairs fish and amphibian behavior, timing of metamorphosis, and immune function.
In a 2021 Endangered Species Act assessment, EPA itself admitted that atrazine is likely to harm over 1,000 plant and animal species at risk for extinction.
Atrazine is an endocrine disruptor, which means that it interferes with the hormones that regulate the development and functioning of all our bodily systems. It has been associated with reproductive dysfunction, behavioral abnormalities, and impaired fetal growth. There is also evidence atrazine contributes to birth defects and cancers, including non-Hodkgin lymphoma, breast and prostate cancer.
While of particular concern to farmworkers and their children, atrazine can also be more broadly harmful to human health, especially through exposure from drinking water. Associations have been found between atrazine exposure and low birth weight and small head circumference in newborns.
Center for Food Safety has long challenged EPA’s failure to adequately regulate atrazine despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its harms.
CFS has submitted extensive scientific and legal comments throughout EPA’s registration review process, challenged unlawful agency decisions, and advocated for stronger protections for endangered species, waterways, and public health.
In 2020, CFS submitted comments opposing EPA’s decision to reapprove atrazine despite evidence that the pesticide harms aquatic ecosystems and threatens more than 1,000 endangered species. We then sued the agency alongside our partners for their re-approval of the pesticide.
In 2025, CFS joined conservation groups and family farmers in seeking court intervention to compel EPA to implement meaningful safeguards and address widespread atrazine contamination in U.S. waterways.
CFS continues to advocate for stronger regulation and accountability for atrazine’s impacts on people, wildlife, and the environment.
