(Natural News) Atrazine is a weedkiller that is quickly becoming one of the most widely used pesticides in the United States. Predominantly sprayed on Midwestern cornfields, the toxin’s presence is consistently detected in public water supplies. Much research has indicated that the pesticide is in fact capable of significant endocrine disruption, among other ill effects.

Atrazine was banned by the European Union in 2003 — just shy of 15 years ago — due to the “ubiquitous and unpreventable” water contamination. In 2006, members of the Natural Resources Defense Council authored a paper that presented evidence of Syngenta’s heavy-handed involvement with US atrazine assessments, and their apparently successful attempts at influencing the approval process. The authors note that Syngenta not only submitted flawed data as evidence that their product didn’t cause harm, but the corporate giant also repeatedly held private meetings with the EPA to “negotiate the government’s regulatory approach.” Unsurprisingly, the details of these meetings were withheld from the public. (Related: Keep up with what the EPA is up to at EPA.news) (Click to Article)