By tracing the webs of atrazine's chemical relationships, this project illustrates that the molecule is always political. The purpose of this project is to write the story of the ecological and personal effects of atrazine and situate it in the political economy that enables its spread. While many of the effects of atrazine are described in relation to the commonly studied African clawed frog, the effects of the chemical are far-reaching.
Further complicating the interpretation of atrazine toxicity is a large body of research funded by Syngenta (the main manufacturer of atrazine) that disputes the harmful effects of atrazine. The biggest, if not the only, argument for the continued use of atrazine is economic. In 2011, Syngenta funded a research group called the 'Atrazine Benefits Team' (ABT) to investigate the economic impact of atrazine use in the US.
ABT studies predicted that withdrawal of atrazine would cause large yield and income losses (Mitchell, 2011). With atrazine's continued use despite minimal agricultural and economic benefits, and numerous harmful ecological and human health effects, the story of atrazine is as much molecular as it is political.
Theoretical framework: An infrastructure of chemical relations
15 to the micro and macro exchanges of power, that a clearer understanding of how shifts in material forms occur. While the connections between science and political economy are examined in more detail in the chapter Regulation and contestation, it is relevant to begin to make visible the extent of chemical relations. Silent Spring situates the scale of predictable and known molecular dangers in the absurd reality that Roy (1998) suggests we hardly have the capacity to imagine or describe.
In the field of chemical pollution, it is increasingly necessary to work at scale, adapting to their emergent and relational nature (Tsing, 2019). It attends to the modes of extraction, ecological degradation, and unequal political economies involved in the movement and use of particular materials. The commodification of natural resources and analyzes of unequal material flows, based on the Marxist theory of the ecological gap, are well documented (Moore, 2011; Foster, 1999).
The most troubling effects are found not through the practices of extractive production, but in the way it travels unevenly across the regulatory landscapes and environments in which it is used. It is in what Tsing might call the 'unruly edges' that atrazine's relationships emerge - in the uncertainty of seasonal farmers spreading the herbicide, the presence of atrazine in marine environments far from agricultural regions, and the adoption of regulations that make slow but violent stories. in bodies around the world.
An (un)natural history of atrazine
Atrazine is produced by the reaction of isopropylamine and ethylamine, in the presence of cyanuric acid chloride (Heri et al., 2008). Selectivity determines which plants are negatively affected by the chemical and which are resistant (Muller et al., 2008). There are five modes of degradation of atrazine in soil: hydrolysis, photolysis, adsorption, volatilization and microbial degradation (Graymore et al., 2001).
This is probably due to a reduction in the primary production of aquatic plants (Graymore et al., 2001). Similarly, with atrazine concentrations at 20 ppb, there was a reduction of up to 60% in macrophytes (Graymore et al., 2001). In the aquatic insect world, atrazine concentration from 20 ppb caused a decrease in growth, development and overall survival rates (Graymore et al., 2001).
Steinberg et al., (1995) found that concentrations of atrazine as low as 5 ppb caused changes in swimming behavior in zebrafish. As seen in the review by Ackerman et al. (2014) implied, the only significant loser in the event of an atrazine ban is the agrochemical industry.
The (re)actions of atrazine as regulatory entity
3 Simazine, despite its ban in the EU, remains in use, mainly on grapes, the main contributor to South Africa's most profitable agricultural export, wine. The author describes the most prominent influences of various political administrations in the 20th century and their effects on regulatory change. Regulatory changes in the 1970s included a greater focus on pollution as well as air and water quality.
One of the most significant waves of stricter environmental regulations for air and water quality was instituted in the run-up to the 1972 presidential election, widely regarded as a lobbying tactic (Jones, 1975; Meier, 1985; Eisner, 1993). In the same period, pesticide use in South Africa increased by 62%, with the other largest pesticide users China and Brazil increasing by 659% and 129% respectively (Roser, 2019). Keeping profitable deals with waste fuel products that affect people not protected by the necessary strict regulations is allowed and even encouraged by a capitalist market (Zafirakis et al., 2016).6 The systemic nature of unequal regulations and the resulting concentration of toxicity it is a form of what Nixon (2011) expresses.
6 "Junk fuel" is a phrase used in the oil industry to refer to poor quality fuel. That year, a total of 1702 tonnes of pesticides banned in the EU were exported to South Africa from European countries. Among European countries, France has led the way in 2022 by banning the import and export of all pesticides banned in the EU for the protection of the environment and health (European Parliament, 2020).
The role of (chemical) industries in perpetuating structural violence (Scheper-Hughes, 1996), such as the current opioid crisis in the USA, has been established. Although that regulation seemed to be resolved for a moment, the pesticide industry's involvement in the regulatory sphere remains present and unclear. A protocol document published by the DALRRD in 2018 points out that in the event of an emergency registration of a pesticide, the pesticide registrar will consult.
It quotes the chairman as saying: “The forum has developed a new regulatory environment and strategy. The immediate actions we intend to take should ensure that the resources at the [DALRRD] are adequate. The article notes that the SAIF is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the department. Furthermore, given the DFFE's slowness and hesitation in enforcing a process as simple as prior informed consent procedures for chemicals globally recognized as potentially harmful, the regulatory landscape in South Africa appears resolutely in favor of agrochemical companies.
Infrastructures of harm
Even ecological disasters like the UPL fire and chemical spill were quickly forgotten in the public media, except for the persistent Daily Maverick and Groundup journalists. Slow violence is a process of attrition, and Nixon (2011: 3) notes that it "can fuel long-term, proliferating conflicts in situations where the conditions for sustaining life are increasingly but progressively degraded." The nature of 'conflicts' ranges from the more mundane yet violent experiences of dispossession and injury in war to political conflicts between state entities and societies where uneven distribution of power results in perpetual avoidance of accountability. As discussed in the structural analysis, South Africa's pesticide regulations and the involvement of the agrochemical industry work to reinforce the use of chemicals such as atrazine.
It is a brutal legacy that exemplifies slow violence where “the conditions for sustaining life become increasingly but progressively degraded” (Nixon 2011: 3). Furthermore, only one in six deaths recorded at the hospital appeared in the Department of Health report (Balme et al., 2010). While most of the affected beaches have only been reopened for recreational activities, a one kilometer radius from the mouth of the river has been closed indefinitely in what the DFFE called “the most serious environmental disaster in recent memory” (DFFE, 2021b).
The study also classified the environmental impact of the chemical pollution as "very high" (Airshed Atmospheric Impact Report. One of the conceptual bases for perpetuating the slow violence inflicted by industrial chemicals is the idea of the 'side effect'. This is particularly relevant in the agrochemical industry, where the political economy of the side effect is such that the unintended effects of pesticides are externalized.
This study of violence associated with atrazine and pesticides captures a broader fragment of South Africa's chemical infrastructure and illustrates patterns of slow violence. Chemical pollution metrics are one of the more complicated areas to measure than say, for example. 8 Persson et al., (2022) used the term “new entities” instead of “chemical pollution” to describe the planetary boundary – a term first published by Steffen et al., 2015.
Graymore et al., (2001) have shown a similar effect on certain aquatic plants, disrupting habitat, food resources and the balance of the food webs. Some challenges arose from the mechanics of analyzing different data sets, such as comparing different units of measurement. A biological analysis of the use and benefits of chloro-s-triazine herbicides in corn and sorghum production in the US.
Combined effects of atrazine and chlorpyrifos on susceptibility of the tiger salamander to Ambystoma tigrinum virus. Economic assessment of the benefits of chloro-s-triazine herbicides to US corn, sorghum, and sugarcane producers.
