Cyanazine

Cyanazine is a chlorotriazine herbicide sold by DuPont under the trade name Bladex, first introduced in 1971. It is "essentially atrazine with cyanide attached to it." Cyanazine is the most toxic triazine herbicide and perhaps the most toxic herbicide found in drinking water. It is a developmental or reproductive toxin, a groundwater contaminant, a possible carcinogen, and a suspected endocrine disruptor. 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. 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. 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.

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

Related SourceWatch Pages

 * Herbicides
 * Chlorotriazine Herbicides
 * Classification of Herbicides

External Articles

 * Shannon M. Lynch, Jennifer A. Rusiecki, Aaron Blair, Mustafa Dosemeci, Jay Lubin, Dale Sandler, Jane A. Hoppin, Charles F. Lynch, Michael C.R. Alavanja, "Cancer Incidence among Pesticide Applicators Exposed to Cyanazine in the Agricultural Health Study," Environmental Health Perspectives, August 2006.