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Roundup Is Killing Off Amphibians, Ecologist Says

 

August 10, 2005 — By Eric Hand, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Worldwide, amphibians are dying. And University of Pittsburgh

ecologist Rick Relyea said he knows one way to kill them: Spray them

with a little Roundup, the best-selling weed killer from St. Louis-

based Monsanto.

 

In a new study from Relyea, published in this month's issue of the

journal Ecological Applications, Roundup killed 98 percent of

tadpoles during a three-week test in simulated shallow ponds. In a

separate dry experiment, Roundup killed 79 percent of young frogs

and toads after just one day. " It's much deadlier than we thought, "

Relyea said.

 

Monsanto says that Roundup isn't meant to be used near water and

that its directions clearly say so. But many amphibians live in

shallow puddles, Relyea said. He said he worries that wetlands

within fields and forests are accidentally being sprayed.

 

Something clearly is killing amphibians. They have declined

drastically since the 1970s, biologists say. Nearly a third of the

world's amphibians are threatened, according to a global survey last

year by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and

Natural Resources.

 

By contrast, 12 percent of bird species and 20 percent of mammals

are threatened, according to the union's Web site, www.redlist.org.

 

" The debate is whether amphibians are the canaries in the coal

mine, " Washington University biologist Jonathan Chase said. There

are reasons to suspect they are. "

 

Amphibians' permeable skins make them vulnerable to toxins. Global

warming, acid rain and increased ultraviolet light all seem to harm

them. So even if Roundup has a toxic effect, Chase said, it's

unlikely to cause the global declines on its own. Rather, there are

likely many causes with the biggest being loss of habitat, he said.

 

" The No. 1 cause is that we're building parking lots and malls and

expanding our footprint on the world, " he said.

 

Relyea said he agrees that habitat loss is the most important

factor. There isn't evidence yet that Roundup is contributing to the

worldwide decline, he said. But his experiments show its striking

lethality.

 

Relyea added one tablespoon of Roundup Grass and Weed Killer to 250

gallons of water in cattle-watering tanks where tadpoles were

growing with soil and food. That amount mimicked a worst-case

accidental spraying of a small wetland, Relyea said.

 

But Monsanto spokeswoman Mica DeLong said Relyea's concentrations

were too high and unlikely to be found in nature. She also

criticized the artificial setting of Relyea's dry experiment, in

which he sprayed frogs and toads who sat in plastic tubs lined with

moist paper towels.

 

" We believe this needs to be studied in a natural setting where

other factors come into play, " she said, citing a field study last

year by Canadian scientists, published in the journal Environmental

Toxicology and Chemistry. It shows that even when small wetlands are

accidentally sprayed, Roundup concentrations never come close to the

levels Relyea applied.

 

Roundup is a product name for a herbicide, one of many in a general

class that use the chemical glyphosate, which Monsanto pioneered.

Glyphosate is now the top agricultural pesticide in the U.S.,

according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

In 1993, the EPA renewed its permit for Roundup. It noted that

glyphosate itself is not toxic to aquatic life. The problem was with

one of its common surfactants, which is toxic. A surfactant is a

soapy additive used so glyphosate can stick to and penetrate plants.

 

In Australia and Europe, Monsanto sells Roundup Biactive, a version

with a different surfactant that doesn't harm amphibians.

 

" Why don't we have the other surfactant? " Relyea asked. " Either it's

less effective at killing weeds or it's more expensive to make. "

 

Monsanto toxicologist Donna Farmer said the surfactant in Roundup

Biactive was less effective on North American weeds and also would

be subject to a cumbersome EPA approval process.

 

To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to to the

newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com.

 

Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

 

 

 

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– foreverâ€

-George Orwell