Investigation on Weed Killer Dicamba Adds to Pattern of Corporate Deception on Pesticide Hazards

The Center for Media and Democracy’s (CMD’s) PR Watch reported in 2012 on documents it had obtained showing that Syngenta’s “PR team investigated the press and spent millions to spin news coverage and public perceptions in the face of growing concerns about potential health risks from the widely used weed-killer atrazine.” The company used a variety of tactics to buoy the perception and reputation of its atrazine products: it sought third parties to speak in support of the herbicide, floated glowing corporate op-ed pieces to appear under willing individuals’ bylines, and directed its chief scientist to ghostwrite a book chapter that would challenge the idea of regulating atrazine by applying the Precautionary Principle. After a New York Times investigation and report on atrazine, that public relations team at Syngenta held a meeting in which one agenda item was “‘to obtain the services of a well know (sic) investigative reporter to probe around the EPA’ and, at a minimum get advice ‘on what buttons to push and cages to rattle.'”