Dataset of the Day: Atrazine in our Drinking Water
September 8th, 2009by Emily Sciarillo
About the Author: To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. Read more from this authorAtrazine, a herbicide banned in the European Union in 2004 but still widely used in the US, has recently been in the news due to lawsuits and the release of EPA’s atrazine monitoring data. Thanks to the Huffington Post who made the data public, GeoCommons now has in Finder! annual averages and peaks for atrazine levels as well as the most recent results for each year from 2003 to 2008.
Syngenta, the leading producer of atrazine, claims that “water systems in the U.S. are safe where atrazine is concerned. Over the last three years, no water systems in the U.S. had atrazine levels in their drinking water that exceeded legal limits.”
However the recently released data do not agree and neither does the NDRC. According to them “three water systems had running annual averages for atrazine in finished (tap) water that exceeded the 3 ppb drinking water standard” and “54 water systems (39 percent) had a one-time peak atrazine concentration above 3 ppb”. The NDRC also suggests that the current standards by the EPA which focus on annual averages ignore the more alarming peaks. An analysis of the dataset supports that concern. This graph of by monthly levels in 2008 shows dramatic peaking of atrazine levels in the water for almost 4 months coinciding with planting season when atrazine is applied.
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The map below shows average atrazine levels in parts per billion for finished water in the areas studied for 2008.
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June 23rd, 2010 at 7:29 am
A separate study published last year in the medical journal Acta Paediatrica compared monthly concentrations of “nitrates, atrazine and other pesticides” in the U.S. water supply with birth defect rates over a seven-year period. The researchers found, “Elevated concentrations of agrichemicals in surface water in April-July coincided with higher risk of birth defects in live births with [last menstrual periods in] April-July.” The association was found for “eleven of 22 birth defect subcategories” as well as for birth defects as a whole.