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News Note:
Formula-Fed U.S. Infants Exposed to Atrazine
A recent report from the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) states that the herbicide atrazine
is polluting tap water in almost 800 communities in the midwestern
region of the United States. EWG found that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has seriously underestimated atrazine exposure
for infants fed formula mixed with this tap water.
Atrazine, the most heavily used
herbicide in the U.S., is applied to 50 million acres of corn, and enters
drinking water supplies through runoff. Many water utilities serving major
cities have begun using powdered activated carbon systems, reducing but
not necessarily eliminating herbicides in drinking water. In smaller communities,
water utilities often lack the resources for sophisticated filtration
systems of this sort.
EWG analyzed over 127,000 tap
water test results for the years 1993 through 1998 from seven Midwestern
states. The group found atrazine residues in tap water delivered to over
10 million people in 796 towns. In some communities the lifetime cancer
risk from average atrazine concentrations is more than 20 times higher
than EPA safety standards.
EPA safety standards rest on the
incorrect assumption that a bottle-fed newborn drinks the same amount
of tap water relative to its body weight as an adult. In fact, for a mother
to get the same dose of atrazine in relation to her body weight as a bottle-fed
baby, she would have to drink three and a half gallons of tap water a
day.
Using the amount of atrazine a
bottle-fed infant receives, EWG estimated the cancer risk accumulation
during the first years of life. For 138 of the communities considered,
EWG found that by age five children will exceed EPA's lifetime allowable
dose of atrazine. In 40 towns, bottle-fed infants exceed their legally
allowable lifetime cancer risk from atrazine by their first birthday.
In Kansas City, Kansas, bottle-fed infants can receive their legal lifetime
dose by just over eight months of age while in some other towns, babies
receive their lifetime dose in their first four months.
EWG points out that the economic
burden of controlling atrazine exposure falls on water utilities, while
the herbicide's manufacturer takes no responsibility. Atrazine, made by
the Swiss-based multinational Novartis, causes more public drinking water
supplies in the U.S. to violate federal health standards each year than
any other chemical pollutant in the country. EWG argues that unless Novartis
takes responsibility for outfitting water utilities with the proper equipment
to filter out atrazine contamination, EPA should ban use of atrazine entirely.
Source: Into the Mouths
of Babes: Bottle-Fed Infants at Risk from Atrazine in Tap Water, Environmental
Working Group, July 1999.
Contact: Environmental Working
Group, 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20009; phone
(202) 667-6982; fax (202) 232-2592; email info@ewg.org;
Web site http://www.ewg.org.
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