Atrazine

Atrazine is a systemic triazine herbicide which can be used both pre and post-emergence for the control of grass and broadleaf weeds in crops such as sorghum, maize, sugarcane, lupins, pine and eucalypt plantations, and triazine tolerant (TT) canola. Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides in Australian agriculture.

Atrazine review

Status: review completed

In December 1995 the APVMA began a review of atrazine because of concerns over human and animal carcinogenicity, environmental impacts including the potential for atrazine to contaminate ground and surface water, and residue and efficacy uncertainties.

Regulatory actions undertaken in 1997 included cancellation of industrial and non-agricultural uses of atrazine (home garden uses and all commercial turf uses), deletion of use patterns and maximum residue limits (MRLs) for label claims for which there were no current use patterns (citrus, grapes and pineapples) and the introduction of a range of label instructions to reduce the risk of atrazine entering waterways. In addition, registrants were required to provide additional residue and monitoring data.

Further reports were published in 2002 and 2004 but no further regulatory action was undertaken at that time.

The final report, dated March 2008, is now available. The APVMA has affirmed the active constituent and required registrants to amend label instructions for newly-manufactured stocks of products containing atrazine, to reflect the outcomes of the review. Most of the regulatory actions detailed in the final report were proposed in the 2004 report. These include amended label instructions intended to further reduce the risk of atrazine entering waterways, updated information on withholding periods and additional information on weed resistance reporting.

For more information please contact the Chemical Review Program on (02) 6210 4749 or email chemrev@apvma.gov.au

Review report	Date
Atrazine Final Review Report and Regulatory Decision	March 2008
Atrazine Final Technical report	March 2008

Product search

Search the PUBCRIS database for registered products that contain atrazine.
Note: In the Active Constituent 1 field enter atrazine.

APVMA atrazine archive

Title	Date
Atrazine Final Review Report (Second Draft)( PDF - 763KB)	Dec 2004
Frequently Asked Questions	Jul 2008
Atrazine Final Review Report (Draft) ( PDF - 421KB)	Apr 2002
Atrazine Interim Review Report ( PDF - 217KB)	Nov 1997
Technical Report Introduction Technical Report Chemistry Assessment Technical Report Agricultural Assessment ( PDF - 172KB) Technical Report Toxicology Assessment ( PDF - 997KB) Technical Report Occupational Health & Safety Assessment ( PDF - 240KB) Technical Report Environmental Assessment ( PDF - 336KB) Technical Report Registration and review process	Nov 1997
Atrazine review progresses	Aug 2007
Media Release: Regulator clears atrazine for continued use	Dec 2004
Gazette notice: Draft outcomes of the atrazine review	Dec 2004
Media Release: Public Comment Sought on Findings of Atrazine Review	Apr 2002