[Pharmwaste] Frogs exposed to herbicides don't know if they're
Arthur or Martha
Catherine Zimmer
zimme053 at umn.edu
Mon Jul 16 14:53:33 EDT 2007
Hi all,
I don't know who wrote the article trying to debunk Dr. Hayes, but they
fail to substantiate some things they claim as fact. The following
statement is not accurate based on many articles I have read regarding
amphibians:
"But even Hayes can*t explain why after 30 years of extensive atrazine
use, frog populations are still thriving in the areas where it is
heavily used." By failing to substantiate their statements, these
authors call into question their own veracity.
In MN, we have seen a number of frogs that exhibit many of the anomalies
elucidated by Dr. Hayes. And, frog populations are not "thriving".
These frogs we found in ponds in agricultural areas. MN farmers use
atrazine extensively. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the two
together.
Please note that many who are trying to debunk Hayes' research are
Syngenta (manufacturer of Atrazine) scientists. Also note that
Syngenta's headquarters are in Switzerland where atrazine is banned.
Catherine Zimmer
Health Care Specialist
Minnesota Technical Assistance Program
University of Minnesota
612/624-4635, 800/247-0015
http://www.mntap.umn.edu
Helping Minnesota businesses maximize resource efficiency, prevent pollution and reduce costs.
Stephen Musson wrote:
> I have met Dr. Hayes and have spoke with several University
> Professors concerning his research. I can tell you that there are
> more supporters than critics of his work. However, there is a far
> greater story than what is revealed in this article, such as who was
> funding the research of these different professors. I can tell you
> that Dr. Hayes' life while becoming a known name, has not become any
> easier including threats to him and his family.
>
> I concede that the endocrine system is complex, but as such, there
> just may be factors in the environment that weren't present in the
> laboratory mediating the effects. Like any research, answers usually
> lead to more questions.
>
>
>
> */James Bukowski <jbukowsk at jhmi.edu>/* wrote:
>
> Rachel Carson Syndrome Case 4:
> Leopard Frogs and Atrazine Accusations
>
> Tyrone Hayes and Frog Deformities
>
> Finally, there is the research of Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a California
> researcher who is the newest media darling in the supposed *global
> frog crisis.* Over the past four years, Hayes has been profiled by
> National Geographic magazine, Discover magazine, National Public
> Radio,
> and virtually every major newspaper in the country.
>
>
> Hayes argues that traces of atrazine, one of the most widely used farm
> weed killers in North America, are affecting frogs from California to
> the Carolinas. The media has run with this theory, placing it at the
> heart of all supposed frog ills. As a 2003 editorial in the Baltimore
> Sun newspaper stated, *Frogs have been trying to tell us something for
> quite a while now. Each spring there seem to be fewer of them, while
> increasingly those that do appear are severely deformed; . . . A
> leading
> culprit is believed to be the widely used weed killer atrazine.*35
>
> Yet Hayes doesn*t argue that atrazine kills frogs or causes
> deformities. Instead he says that atrazine feminizes male frogs,
> chemically castrating them. Therefore, Hayes argues, atrazine *likely
> has a significant impact on amphibian populations* and should be
> banned.36
>
> But even Hayes can*t explain why after 30 years of extensive atrazine
> use, frog populations are still thriving in the areas where it is
> heavily used. Nor can he provide any field evidence that atrazine has
> harmed a single frog species anywhere.
>
> Hayes says research in his laboratory shows that at 0.1 parts per
> billion (ppb) atrazine, 36% of males at metamorphosis suffer from
> under-developed testes.37 At 25 ppb atrazine, only 12% of males at
> metamorphosis have under-developed testes. Hayes says that the greater
> effects of atrazine at lower concentrations are not unusual for
> endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Yet even Hayes admits that these frogs
> were simply delayed in their sexual development and would continue
> normal development after metamorphosis.
>
> Hayes also found 29% of male frogs *displayed varying degrees of
> sex-reversal* at 0.1 ppb atrazine, whereas only 8% of males showed
> some sex-reversal at 25 ppb atrazine.38 However, scientists from four
> universities have been unable to reproduce Hayes*s laboratory results.
> Dr. Ronald Kendall at Texas Tech University, a Hayes critic, says,
> *validated information should be replicable.*
>
> In response, Hayes accuses the other researchers of outright lying.
>
> This is a group of individuals whose sole goal is to prove me
> wrong and
> to keep atrazine on the market. Their science is so poor, yet they
> continually try to damage or hurt my findings by saying they can*t
> reproduce my work under the pretense that they*re doing real science.
> I thought only criminals and desperate people lied, not educated
> people.
> My 11-year-old looks over their experiments and sees that they have no
> controls. They can*t be that dumb, so they*re lying.39
>
> These are incredibly strong words for a scientific debate, where
> research usually is left to speak for itself and to sort out such
> debates. If experimental results cannot be replicated, their
> validity is
> understandably questioned. Instead, Hayes has resorted to ad hominem
> attacks, using a word that is almost never used in science debates:
> Liar. And Hayes is leveling that charge against an entire group of
> researchers from several institutions.
>
> If the laboratory results are in contentious dispute, what, if
> anything, is happening to frogs out in the real world? Even
> according to
> Hayes*s field research, not much.
>
> Hayes conducted field studies in Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa*in
> places where atrazine is used regularly and in places where it is
> presumably never used. Hayes found traces of atrazine at all but one
> location, a wildlife preserve in Iowa. One water testing lab found no
> atrazine in the Iowa preserve*s water and another found only trace
> levels at the limit of detection.
>
> Bottom line: Hayes could show no correlation between atrazine levels
> and *gonadal abnormalities* in northern leopard frogs at any of the
> sites. While more than 90 percent of male frogs from one site in
> Wyoming
> had some *gonadal abnormalities,* three other sites with equivalent
> atrazine levels had no or low levels of abnormalities. Atrazine levels
> were the same in sites in Utah and Wyoming, yet there is
> approximately a
> 900 percent difference in the incidence of abnormalities between the
> sites. At one Utah site, no abnormalities were seen despite the
> presence
> of the same atrazine levels seen at the high-incidence site in
> Wyoming.
> Moreover, the Iowa site where no atrazine was found had the same
> frequency of abnormalities as four other sites where atrazine levels
> were both low and high.
>
> In short, none of the field data makes any sense if atrazine
> really has
> an impact on male frog sexual development. Most damning of all, Hayes
> had no trouble finding northern leopard frogs at any of the field
> sites
> he studied. Frogs were abundant at all locations. So much for Hayes*s
> claims that atrazine *likely has a significant impact on amphibian
> populations.*
>
> Rather than finding an ecological problem in frogs and then searching
> for a cause, Hayes seems to have found a laboratory effect from
> atrazine
> and is now searching for an ecological problem.
>
> Finally, Dr. Hayes made a startling statement in a recent paper he
> wrote about the lack of scientific evidence that DDT harmed raptor
> birds. Dr. Hayes recently wrote that *Years have passed since DDT was
> banned in the United States, but it is unclear how much
> policymakers and
> the public have learned from the case of this dangerous pesticide. DDT
> was banned on the basis of even less scientific evidence than
> currently
> exists for the negative impacts of atrazine.*40
>
> Considering the lack of evidence on the *negative impacts of
> atrazine,* this says volumes about the DDT paradigm that is currently
> driving a sector of the ecological research community and about the
> ultra-conservative regulatory stance of the EPA.
>
> http://www.cgfi.org/materials/key_pubs/rachel-carson-syndrome-leapard-frogs-atrazine-accusations.htm
>
> James Bukowski, CIH HEM
> Environmental Health Officer
> Virginia Tech (1980)
>
> >>> "DeBiasi,Deborah" 7/16/2007 11:36 AM
> >>>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/frogs-exposed-to-herbicides-dont-
>
> know-if-theyre-arthur-or-martha/2007/07/14/1183833835538.html#
>
> Frogs exposed to herbicides don't know if they're Arthur or Martha
>
> Study alert: A green tree frog.
>
> Carmel Egan
> July 15, 2007
>
> AUSTRALIAN drinking water standards are under scrutiny after
> scientific
> research linked commonly used herbicides to gender-bending in male
> frogs.
>
> The National Health and Medical Research Council has decided to
> reassess
> its drinking water guidelines after miniscule traces of the herbicides
> atrazine and simazine were found to turn the frogs into hermaphrodites
> -
> creatures with male and female sex organs.
>
> Australian guidelines allow up to 40 parts per billion (ppb) of
> atrazine
> in drinking water before it is considered a public health risk. But
> scientific studies have found male frogs grow ovaries when exposed to
> the chemical at the miniscule level of 0.1ppb in water.
>
> "The current Australian Drinking Water Guidelines specify that
> atrazine
> should not be detected in drinking water, and that if it is detected
> remedial action should be taken to stop contamination," said research
> council spokesman Nigel Harding.
>
> "The guidelines state that if present in drinking water, atrazine
> would
> not be a health concern in humans unless the concentration exceeds
> 40ppb.
>
> "The guidelines are currently under review."
>
> Atrazine, which was banned across the European Union in 2003, has been
> used for weed control in Australia for more than 25 years and is the
> nation's second most commonly used agriculture chemical agent. It is
> sprayed around canola fields, forestry plantations and sugar cane.
>
> There is no legal requirement for atrazine users to notify water
> authorities when the chemical is being sprayed.
>
> Dr Tyrone Hayes, an associate professor of integrative biology at the
> University of California, presented the findings on the impact of
> atrazine on frogs at an address to the Australia Pesticides and
> Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), which oversees the continuing
> registration of atrazine.
>
> The APVMA's present environmental assessment of atrazine concludes
> that
> it is "unlikely that atrazine, when used in accordance with the label
> recommendations, will contaminate waterways to any extent likely to
> present a hazard to the environment, or to human beings through the
> consumption of contaminated drinking water".
>
> However, it acknowledges that after storms levels of atrazine in water
> will rise and may temporarily exceed the guidelines.
>
> The manufacturer of atrazine, the Swiss corporation Syngenta, rejects
> Dr
> Hayes's findings.
>
>
> Deborah L. DeBiasi
> Email: dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
> WEB site address: www.deq.virginia.gov
> Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
> Office of Water Permit Programs
> Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
> Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218 (NEW!)
> Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219
> PH: 804-698-4028
> FAX: 804-698-4032
>
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>
>
> Stephen Musson, CHMM, CIH
> PhD Candidate
> University of Florida
> Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences
> PO Box 116450
> Gainesville, FL 32611-6450
> (352)846-3035
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