American families and farmers can bank on the safety of one of the country's oldest and most popular herbicides, according to the product's manufacturer. Atrazine, the most tested crop protection product on the market, is currently undergoing scientific review by a special US EPA panel to re-examine its safety to human health.

"We hope sound science prevails over political science to ensure atrazine's continued use,'' said Janis McFarland, director of environmental stewardship and food quality programs for Novartis Crop Protection Inc. "More than 700 scientific studies -- 100 of those conducted in the last five years -- confirm atrazine's safety to human health and the environment.''

Today marks the last day of a three-day review by EPA's Scientific Advisory Panel, convened to review atrazine's safety to humans and the environment. The EPA is asking the panel of scientists to review the exhaustive research conducted on atrazine and comment on unfounded speculation that atrazine may cause cancer in humans.

"Novartis disagrees with the EPA's default cancer classification for atrazine,'' noted McFarland, "because it's based on an incorrect interpretation of the EPA's preliminary draft cancer guidelines and is inconsistent with the weight of the scientific evidence.''

Studies of a single strain of laboratory rat show that high doses of atrazine are associated with an earlier onset of the rat's naturally occurring mammary tumors -- an effect which, according to independent scientists, is not relevant to humans.

For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently concluded that there is no correlation between atrazine and cancer risk to humans. In 1998, WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluated the extensive scientific evidence on atrazine and placed it in the same category as saccharin, a compound which has recently garnered media attention as a previously suspect product which the FDA has now declared safe for consumers.

Atrazine has been used safely by growers for four decades for broad-spectrum, season-long weed control without crop injury. It is registered in 80 countries around the world, and in the US alone, atrazine controls weeds on about two-thirds of all corn and sorghum and up to 90 percent of sugar cane acreage. Atrazine also has important environmental advantages: data from the US Department of Agriculture show that atrazine is the most widely used herbicide in conservation tillage systems.

American families should feel equally confident that low levels of atrazine which are occasionally detected in water supplies are far below established safety standards. In the 21 states where atrazine is used the most by farmers, ongoing studies of 21,241 community water systems show that 99.97% of the systems had average mean atrazine concentrations below the federal safety standard of 3ppb. Using this standard, a 150-pound adult could drink 21,000 gallons of water a day containing the allowable maximum level of atrazine and still experience no adverse health effects. A 22-pound toddler could drink 3000 gallons of water a day for a lifetime without any health risks.

"Despite the fact that atrazine is one of the oldest herbicides on the market, it has an updated science database that is unrivaled by even the newest products,'' said McFarland. "Novartis believes the science will speak for itself and that the SAP will echo the World Health Organization's conclusion that atrazine poses no threat to American consumers.''

Novartis Crop Protection Inc. has North American headquarters in Greensboro, NC. It is an affiliate of Novartis AG, a world leader in healthcare with core businesses in pharmaceuticals, consumer health, generics, eye-care and animal health. In 1999, the group (including Agribusiness) achieved sales of USD 21.7 billion and invested more than USD 2.8 billion in R&D. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis employs about 82,400 people and operates in more than 140 countries around the world. The group recently announced plans to spin off its Crop Protection and Seeds sectors and to merge them with the agrochemicals business of  AstraZeneca in the second half of 2000.

For more information on atrazine, visit the Novartis Crop Protection atrazine/simazine web site
(http://www.atrazine.com). 

SOURCE: Novartis Crop Protection Inc. 

Company news release
N2794