Growth regulator injury to tomatoes in Essex, England

Abstract Severe growth regulator injury to commercial glasshouse tomato crops occurred at fifty holdings in Essex. Using biological assay and chromatographic techniques the source of the injury was traced to the domestic water supply. Effluent from a factory near Cambridge had resulted in contamination of river water with the herbicide 2,3,6-TBA. Water from the Cambridgeshire river system had been pumped into the Essex rivers via a recently completed pumping system.