CIVIL BEAT 3/11/2013
Pesticide Contamination Of Drinking Water Worries State Health Officials
By Sophie Cocke
For years, Hilo residents’ drinking water has been contaminated with the chemical atrazine — a popular weed killer used on thousands of acres of sugar cane fields that lined the landscape up until a couple of decades ago.
The chemical has tested within safe limits established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But scientists and health advocates are increasingly concerned that atrazine could be harmful to human health at lower levels than previously thought.
And the experience of Hilo residents suggests that the chemical can persist in water years after it’s been applied to fields.
The EPA is set to undertake a review of the chemical in June, according to its primary manufacturer, Syngenta. The Swiss-based agribusiness company says that the chemical is safe and has been extensively vetted by the EPA.
But critics hope that federal regulators will tighten restrictions or ban the chemical.
Atrazine has been tied in scientific studies to cancer, changes in sex hormones and birth defects.