The Biden administration is proposing to raise key thresholds that determine how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certifies the environmental impact of pesticides commonly used in the agricultural industry. This has drawn the ire of some environmental advocates.
The agency currently considers an average of just 3.4 micrograms per liter of the insecticide atrazine to be an acceptable level.
but, new proposal A paper published this week raises that level to 9.7 micrograms, saying almost three times as much of the substance can be present in the environment.
The draft plan calls for steps to be taken to reduce potential impacts if levels in the environment exceed the 9.7 microgram level.
Lori Ann Byrd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's environmental health program, strongly condemned the proposal.
“Atrazine is highly toxic even in trace amounts and is so persistent that effective mitigation is simply not possible,” Byrd said in a written statement.
“But the EPA continues to bend over backwards to accommodate producers who insist on dousing our nation's food, fiber, and fuel with atrazine at the expense of public health and the environment,” she said. added.
Atrazine is used on many crops in the United States, including corn and sugarcane. it has been prohibited In the European Union and some other countries, Found to disrupt the endocrine system.
Previously, the E.P.A. signaled The agency announced that it will update the safety threshold for atrazine in July after an independent scientific advisory committee reviewed 11 studies and subsequently re-evaluated two additional studies.
The Biden administration's move is just a suggestion. It is unclear what will happen to atrazine under the incoming Trump administration. In 2020, the former Trump administration We have raised the safety threshold even higher. — up to 15 micrograms per liter.
But the substance has also come under attack from right-wing figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom President Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy suggested that atrazine could cause “sexual changes” in children. Experts told CNN. That's not true.
