An American review of the herbicide atrazine because of health concerns won’t affect prairie farmers.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will review the herbicide after recent studies linked the chemical to birth defects, low birth weight and premature babies.
However, atrazine is not widely used on the Prairies.
Harry Brook, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture, said atrazine is designed for corn, sorghum and sugarcane.
“It’s almost a marginal herbicide, at least in Western Canada,” he said. “It’s not really a huge chemical. The biggest problem is the very long carryover.”
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The grassy herbicide was used in the 1980s when triazine-tolerant canola was developed.
The chemical’s long carryover in the field and the unpopularity of triazine-tolerant canola pushed it to the bottom of farmers’ chemical use list.
Consider results
Stephan Shank of Health Canada said it would monitor the EPA scientific advisory panel’s findings on atrazine.
“Health Canada conducted a health assessment as part of its re-evaluation of atrazine, which concluded in 2004, and found that the health risks were acceptable when risk-reduced measures were implemented, the maximum rate of application was reduced and the use of atrazine was limited to corn,” Shank said in an e-mail.
