Atrazine and cancer:  a review of the epidemiologic evidence.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the conflicting reports from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Scientific Advisory Panel (Panel) on the carcinogenicity of atrazine in order to determine whether the results from epidemiologic studies support a causal relationship between atrazine and any specific cancer. We reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency and Panel reports in the context of all the epidemiologic studies on the specific cancers of interest. A weight-of-evidence approach leads to the conclusion that there is no causal association between atrazine and cancer and that occasional positive results can be attributed to bias or chance. Atrazine appears to be a good candidate for a category of herbicides with a probable absence of cancer risk. Atrazine should be treated for regulatory and public health purposes as an agent unlikely to pose a cancer risk to humans.
Tisch Cancer Institute and Institute for Translational Epidemiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029, USA. paolo.boffetta@mssm.edu
Paolo
P
Boffetta
Hans-Olov
HO
Adami
Sir Colin
SC
Berry
Jack S
JS
Mandel
D000818:Animals; D001280:Atrazine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000633:toxicity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006540:Herbicides / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*
D006540:Herbicides; D001280:Atrazine