Tebuthiuron

Environmental impacts

The Environmental Protection Agency considers tebuthiuron to have a great potential for groundwater contamination, due to its high water solubility, low adsorption to soil particles, and high persistence in soil (soil half-life can exceed 360 days).

In Europe, tebuthiuron has been banned since November 2002.

Application

Tebuthiuron is used agriculturally in Australia and the United States, usually formulated as granules, pellets or a wettable powder. Pellets can be applied by hand (e.g. onto a clump of regrowth or along a fenceline), and by aircraft or ground equipment. It can be applied any time of year, and once applied remains effective for several years. Tebuthiuron (as a 20% pellet) is applied at 0.5-2 g/m2, equating to 0.1-0.4 g/m2 of active ingredient.

Tebuthiuron's herbicide resistance class is Group C, (Australia), C2 (global), Group 7, (numeric, i.e. Group 5, due to a merger).

Vandalism

In 2010, tebuthiuron in the form of Dow AgroSciences Spike 80DF was deliberately used in an act of vandalism to poison the live oak trees at Toomer's Corner on the Auburn University campus following the 2010 Iron Bowl. The lone perpetrator, a University of Alabama fan, was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and jailed on a $50,000 bond. Remediation involved removing about 1,780 tons of contaminated material.

In 2021, Arthur and Amelia Bond, wealthy summer residents of Camden, Maine poisoned their neighbor's oak trees with tebuthiuron to obtain a better view of Camden Harbor. They paid over $200,000 in fines to address illegal pesticide use and environmental contamination, and $1.5 million to settle with their neighbor.

Tradenames

Tebuthiuron has been sold as "Tebuthiuron", "Brush", "Bullet", "Graslan", "Herbic", "Outlaw", "Perflan", "Reclaim", "Spike" and "Tebulex".

References

References

1. (Sep 1993). "Pesticide Information Profile Tebuthiuron". Cornell University.
2. (2011). "1-(5-tert-butyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)-1,3-dimethylurea". [[Royal Society of Chemistry]].
3. (2008). "Tebuthiuron". [[NIST]].
4. (March 2000). "Tebuthiuron Herbicide Fact Sheet". [[Bonneville Power Administration]].
5. "InfoCard". [[ECHA]].
6. (Jan 2022). "FMC Graslan Herbicide MSDS".
7. Stephen Enloe. (15 February 2011). "The Poisoning of Toomer's Oaks". Auburn University.
8. (September 22, 2016). "Tebuthiuron: Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment FINAL REPORT". Syracuse Environmental Research Associates, Inc..
9. European Commission. (2002). "Commission Regulation (EC) No 2076/2002 of 20 November 2002".
10. (18 May 2016). "An international database for pesticide risk assessments and management". Human and Ecological Risk Assessment.
11. "Graslan Herbicide Label". FMC.
12. "Titan Tebuthiuron (Leaflet)". Titan AG.
13. "Classification of Herbicides According to Site of Action".
14. (17 February 2011). "Man arrested in poisoning of Auburn University landmark live oaks". [[CNN]].
15. (June 19, 2024). "Poisoned trees gave a wealthy couple a killer view — and united residents in outrage". NPR.
16. (20 November 2024). "Tebulex 200GR Herbicide".