Cyanazine

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Cyanazine is a chlorotriazine herbicide sold by DuPont under the trade name Bladex, first introduced in 1971.[1] It is "essentially atrazine with cyanide attached to it."[1] Cyanazine is the most toxic triazine herbicide and perhaps the most toxic herbicide found in drinking water.[1] It is a developmental or reproductive toxin, a groundwater contaminant, a possible carcinogen, and a suspected endocrine disruptor.[2] Pesticide Action Network lists it as a Bad Actor. Cyanazine causes moderate acute toxicity.

Cyanazine was banned in the United States as of January 2003.[3] However, as of 2011, it is legal in Australia, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, New Zealand, Niger, Senegal, and South Africa.[4] When it was still legal in the United States, cyanazine was the fourth most widely used synthetic chemical pesticide in U.S agriculture, where it was mostly used in cornfields to control grasses and broadleaf weeds.[1]

Pollution of Waterways

According to a 1999 U.S. Geological Survey publication, cyanazine was among the top herbicides found in streams in agricultural areas.[5] However, in shallow groundwater in agricultural areas, it is more common to find breakdown products of cyanazine than finding cyanazine itself.

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References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Background Information on Cyanazine, Environmental Working Group, August 1995, Accessed September 29, 2011.
  2. Cyanazine, Pesticide Info Database, Pesticide Action Network, Accessed September 29, 2011.
  3. T. S. S. Dikshith, Prakash V. Diwan, Industrial guide to chemical and drug safety, Wiley-IEEE, 2003, p. 162.
  4. Cyanazine Registration, Accessed September 29, 2011.
  5. Different pesticides dominate in different land-use areas, U.S. Geological Survey, Circular 1225, Accessed September 29, 2011.

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External Articles