The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Germany has produced a report summarising the environmental data on the triazine
herbicide group (especially atrazine and simazine). Despite having been
withdrawn or severely restricted in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the UK, WWF says
there is still sufficient data to show that the triazines pose a risk to
European aquatic communities and to human health.
In the water environment, algae, important organisms at the
base of the food chain, have been affected by exposure to atrazine. WWF cites
work which suggests reduced photosynthesis occurs in algae at concentrations as
low as 0.1 ug/l (parts per billion) [the maximum permitted level of pesticides
in drinking water in the EU.] Triazines have been found in a wide range of
environmental locations where their breakdown is slow. After entering
groundwater they have a half-life of up to two years.
WWF cites scientific reports indicating that exposure of
laboratory rats to triazines causes an earlier onset of mammalian tumours. This
has led the US EPA to classify these herbicides as "possible human
carcinogens".
WWF calls on the pan-European inter-governmental body, the
Oslo and Paris Commission for the Prevention of Marine Pollution (OSPAR) in the
North East Atlantic, to adopt measures to reduce the risks posed by all triazine
herbicides. This means according to the author, Heike Schmitt, that triazine
herbicides should be phased out in all OSPAR states.
Heike Schmitt, The Triazine Pesticides-reasons
for concern, WWF Germany North East Atlantic Programme, Am Guthpol 11, D-28757
Bremen, Germany.
[This
article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 35,
March 1997, page 19]