Tebuthiuron is a nonselective broad spectrum
herbicide of the
urea class. It is used in a number of herbicides manufactured by
Dow AgroSciences, and is sold under several trade names, depending on the formulation. It is used to control weeds, woody and herbaceous plants, and sugar cane.
It is absorbed by the roots and transported to the leaves, where it inhibits
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
.
The
Environmental Protection Agency
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
considers tebuthiuron to have a great potential for
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidat ...
contamination, due to its high water
solubility
In chemistry, solubility is the ability of a substance, the solute, to form a solution with another substance, the solvent. Insolubility is the opposite property, the inability of the solute to form such a solution.
The extent of the solub ...
, low
adsorption to soil particles, and high persistence in soil (its soil
half-life is 360 days).
In Europe, tebuthiuron has been banned since November 2002.
In 2010, tebuthiuron 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 Alabama–Auburn football rivalry, better known as the Iron Bowl, is an American college football rivalry game between the Auburn University Tigers and University of Alabama Crimson Tide, both charter members of the Southeastern Confe ...
.
References
External links
Dow AgroSciences MSDS on Spike 80DF
{{Herbicides
Herbicides
Thiadiazoles
Ureas
Tert-butyl compounds