Short title

This Act may be cited as the

Ban Atrazine Toxicants Act

Findings

Congress finds the following:(1)Atrazine is the second-most used herbicide in the United States, with approximately 80,000,000 pounds used annually.(2)Atrazine has been banned in the European Union since 2003, and in Italy and Germany since 1991 due to its long-term persistence in the environment, toxicity to wildlife, and link to adverse effects on human health.(3)Atrazine is highly persistent in the environment and can remain in water for decades. Even after the European Union banned the chemical over 2 decades ago, atrazine can still be detected in groundwater.(4)Atrazine is one of the most commonly detected pesticides in drinking water, groundwater, and surface water across the nation. Approximately 75 percent of stream water and about 40 percent of all groundwater samples from agricultural areas tested in an extensive United States Geological Survey study contained atrazine.(5)The United States Geological Sruvey has found that atrazine is the most frequently detected of all herbicides in urban streams.(6)Atrazine is detected in rainwater, fog, ambient air, arctic ice, and seawater at great distances from urban and agricultural areas.(7)Studies have also concluded that approximately 217–642 tons of atrazine is annually deposited the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin.(8)Atrazine’s impacts on human health are well documented in the scientific literature. Exposure to atrazine can cause elevated cancer risks, heightened risks of birth defects, and significant reproductive impacts. Birth defects are associated with atrazine, including chroanal atresis, stenosis, and gastrochisis.(9)Farmworkers and rural populations who are most often exposed may suffer reproductive harms such as low sperm count and motility, while general exposure in conjunction with other pesticides increases risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in men.(10)Atrazine is highly toxic to wildlife and causes adverse endocrine impacts in amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds, including impaired reproduction, lowered reproductive output, disrupted development, and immunosuppression. Exposure to atrazine at levels as low as 0.1 parts per billion have been shown to harm the development of eggs in male frogs. Atrazine increases stress hormones in immature salmon leading to high mortality rates and low reproductive success.(11)The Environmental Protection Agency found in 2022 that atrazine is likely to adversely affect 1,013 threatened and endangered species, or 56 percent of all endangered plants and animals in the nation, including the whooping crane, California red-legged frog, and the San Joaquin kit fox.(12)The United States Department of Agriculture concluded that banning atrazine would only lead to a 1.19-percent decrease in corn yields.(13)A 2007 study found that neither Germany nor Italy, both of which are corn-producing nations, reported drops in corn yields following their 1991 ban on atrazine.

Cancellation of registration of atrazine

Section 6 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136d) is amended by adding at the end the following:

(l)

Cancellation of registration of atrazine

(1)

In general

(A)

Cancellation

Effective on the date of the enactment of this subsection—(i)atrazine shall be deemed to generally cause unreasonable adverse effects to humans; and(ii)notwithstanding any other provision of law, including subsection (b), the registration of all uses of atrazine shall be immediately and permanently canceled by operation of law and without further proceedings.(B)

Revocation of tolerances and exemptions

Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Administrator shall, in accordance with section 408(b)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, revoke any tolerance or exemption that allows the presence of atrazine, or any pesticide chemical residue that results from atrazine use, in or on food.(2)

Sale of existing stocks prohibited

In accordance with subsection (a)(1), effective on the date of enactment of this subsection, the continued sale or use of existing stocks of atrazine shall be prohibited.(3)

No future atrazine registrations

Effective on the date of the enactment of this subsection, the Administrator may not register any pesticide containing atrazine under section 4.(4)

Ineligibility for emergency use

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a pesticide canceled under this section shall not be eligible for use under section 18.(5)

Definition

In this subsection, the term atrazine refers to the pesticide chemical 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine.