Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females

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Common weedkiller turns male frogs into femalesReuters http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0111969720100302

 

2010-03-02

Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday.The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world."Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized as adults," Tyrone Hayes of the University of California Berkeley and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The chemical had been shown to disrupt development and make frogs develop both male and female features -- termed hermaphroditism. This study of 40 male frogs shows the process can go even further, Hayes said."Before, we knew we got fewer males than we should have, and we got hermaphrodites. Now, we have clearly shown that many of these animals are sex-reversed males," Hayes said in a statement."Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."Syngenta AG (SYNN.VX), one of several companies that makes atrazine, questioned the design of the study and said Hayes has a history of offering flawed studies for publication."For 50 years, atrazine has been used safely in agriculture with no effect to amphibians, fish, birds and other wildlife at concentrations found in the environment -- a fact that is supported by numerous scientific studies," the company said in a statement.The Proceedings is a peer-reviewed journal, meaning that papers it publishes have been screened for obvious flaws.EFFECTS ON HUMANS?Whether the effects translate to humans is far from clear. Frogs have thin skin that can absorb chemicals easily and they literally bathe in the polluted water.The European Union banned atrazine in 2004. The finding may add pressure to the United States to more closely regulate the chemical, used widely in agriculture."Approximately 80 million pounds (36,000 tonnes) are applied annually in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water," the researchers wrote."In fact, more than a half million pounds (220 tonnes) of atrazine are precipitated in rainfall each year in the United States."The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in October it was reviewing the health impacts of atrazine.Hayes and colleagues studied 40 African clawed frogs, keeping them in water contaminated with 2.5 ppb (parts per billion) of atrazine. The EPA's current drinking water standard is 3 ppb."Ten percent of the exposed genetic males developed into functional females that copulated with unexposed males and produced viable eggs," the researchers wrote."Regardless of the mechanism, the impacts of atrazine on amphibians and on wildlife in general are potentially devastating," they wrote."The negative impacts on wild amphibians is especially concerning given that the dose examined here (2.5 ppb) is in the range that animals experience year-round in areas where atrazine is used as well within levels found in rainfall, in which levels can exceed 100 ppb in the Midwestern United States," they added.

 

 

 

 

 

Re: American men are changing into women.......SCIENTIFIC STUDY

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American food animals are pumped full of hormones like estrogen to make the cows and pigs and chickens bigger and to get that way much faster than just nature will allow. So it is no surprise that men are affected. Also no surprise that the breast and cervical cancer rates for women have skyrocketed in my lifetime even for those who have not had hormone therapy in pre-menopause and menopause. May also explain why there are more cases of autism and various ADD problems in boys than in girls. Toss in all the antibiotics and the pesticides on their feed and we are all eating a horrible mess.http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1002727/pg1