The plaintiffs expect the company to pay what it takes to filter the chemical substance from the water used for human consumption, something which has cost tens of millions of dollars to the citizens, while the company gets huge profits for selling the herbicide.

Atrazine is a commonly used component in the US, where it is mostly used in crops like corn, sorghum and sugar cane.

However, its use was banned in Europe in 2004 as a result of its potential effects on human health, which could imply modifying the natural hormonal activity and the functioning of reproductive organs.

US news outlet Democracy Now reported that a recent study determined that atrazine can turn male frogs into female since it alters their development and makes the animals generate both masculine and feminine features.

But both Syngenta and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say the concentrations of the herbicide in drinking water do not damage human health.

This statement is not shared by the plaintiffs, who have information taken from samples of the water supply that point that the atrazine concentrations are three fold above the standards determined by the EPA.

Photo: Greenpeace/Ex-Press/Würtenberg