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Atrazine and Frogs

What’s the real story about atrazine research?  Can we believe the research results from scientists with a cause?  Here’s what the E.P.A. said about the issue.

“EPA has taken an especially close look at the research conducted by Dr. Tyrone Hayes which reports that atrazine adversely affects sexual development in frogs, causing a mixture of sex organs in a single animal. EPA has concluded that the existing data are insufficient to demonstrate that atrazine causes such effects. The Agency’s conclusions are supported by the independent, expert peer review of the SAP (Science Advisory Panel).”

Anne Lindsay, former Deputy Director, Office of Pesticide Programs, U.S. EPA, in testimony before the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the Minnesota House of Representatives, February 16, 2005.

What does science say about the issue?  Well, ScienceDaily.com ran the following story:

“While many factors have been cited for the profound change in global amphibian populations, a new emerging infectious disease, chytridiomycosis, is thought to be directly responsible for wiping out more than 200 species. It poses the greatest threat to biodiversity of any known disease. An aquatic fungus of unknown origin, it’s the first of its kind to infect vertebrates, and only amphibians.”

Simply put, there are a number of things that impact frogs in the environment, including habitat change, pollution and increased exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B).   Want to learn more?  Read the latest amphibian research from Syngenta here – http://www.atrazine.com/Amphibians/atrazine_amphibians_research.aspx

In their native habitats, African clawed frogs do not appear to be suffering from the herbicide. “Atrazine has been used widely in South Africa for the past 45 years, and our studies showed that Xenopus are doing equally fine in agricultural and nonagricultural areas,” says zoologist Louis du Preez of North-West University in South Africa. “If atrazine had these adverse effects on Xenopus in the wild, surely we would have picked it up by now.”

In their native habitats, African clawed frogs do not appear to be suffering from the herbicide. “Atrazine has been used widely in South Africa for the past 45 years, and our studies showed that Xenopus are doing equally fine in agricultural and nonagricultural areas,” says zoologist Louis du Preez of North-West University in South Africa. “If atrazine had these adverse effects on Xenopus in the wild, surely we would have picked it up by now.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sex-changing-weed-killer