Lawsuit Filed Over Contaminated Drinking Water From Atrazine Weed Killer

A water contamination lawsuit has been filed against Syngenta AG by 16 cities across the Midwest, which claim the company’s weed killer Atrazine, which has been linked to birth defects, has infiltrated drinking water sources. 

The Atrazine lawsuit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Illinois. The communities who filed the claim are located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. The lawsuit seeks to force the Swiss corporation Syngenta, and it’s U.S. subsidiary, Syngenta Crop Protection, to pay for cleaning the chemical out of the water, according to a story in the Huffington Post.

Atrazine (ethylamine and isopropylamine) is a widely used herbicide, with more than 70 million pounds used in agriculture every year in the U.S. The weed killer has been banned by the European Union due to how easily it contaminates waterways and drinking water supplies. It has also been held in suspicion by critics due to its effects on species such as amphibians, and the growing body of evidence that it causes a variety of birth defects.

The lawsuit alleges that runoff from crop fields sprayed with atrazine contaminated streams and waterways that contribute to a number of communities’ drinking water supplies. To remove the chemical, cities would have to purchase expensive carbon filters, an expense which would be footed by tax payers.

Syngenta officials say that the levels of atrazine in the water are safe.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after a new study was released that linked atrazine to a birth defect known as gastroschisis, an abdominal wall defect which causes some of an infant’s organs, usually intestines, to develop outside of the body. Researchers found that gastrochisis was more common among infants born to mothers who lived within 15.5 miles of a water body that was found to have high levels of atrazine contamination. They also found that the closer the mother lived to the contaminated water source, the more likely the risk of a birth defect, and that the defects were more prevalent among mothers who conceived in the spring, when atrazine use is at its highest.

Syngenta has rejected the findings of the study, saying that atrazine does not cause birth defects or reproductive problems. However, the study is the latest in a series of studies, performed by different groups of researchers, which have linked atrazine to birth defects.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry indicates that atrazine at high levels causes birth defects in animals.