Study: Atrazine poses no cancer risk in drinking water

A new report in the March 2013 issue of European Journal of Cancer Prevention states atrazine appears to be a good candidate for a category of herbicides with a probable absence of cancer risk. The authors, Boffetta et. al, recommend that atrazine continue to be treated for regulatory and public health purposes as an agent unlikely to pose a cancer risk to humans. They reviewed reports from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the July 2011 EPA Scientific Advisory Panel to determine whether epidemiologic studies suggested a link between atrazine and specific cancers. A weight-of-evidence analysis concluded “that there is no causal association between atrazine and cancer.”

These findings are consistent with the Agricultural Health Study, a large multiyear study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as well as EPA. Other government agencies and independent organizations — including the World Health Organization and regulatory agencies in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia — have reached similar conclusions.

Read the abstract.

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