(Photo from Furryscaly on Flickr through Creative Commons)

The African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis) was the subject of a UC Berkeley study, which says it has determined that the popular herbicide Atrazine is responsible for changing the sex of the amphibians from male to female. If it mutates or destroys the sexual organs of frogs, then surely it can’t be good for your vegetable garden, let alone the environment.

Professor Tyrone Hayes and his colleague, molecular toxicologist at UC Berkeley, CA conducted the research.

Scientists at Syngenta, an international agriculture company which is the chemical’s largest manufacturer, did not hesitate to deem the study “fundamentally flawed”.

The controversy has major political implications because the Environmental Protection Agency had approved Atrazine under the Bush administration after rejecting earlier findings, and agency scientists in the Obama administration are now reviewing that EPA rule. The European Union has already banned Atrazine after concluding that minute levels found in lakes and streams severely damaged amphibians.

The herbicide has been known as an endocrine disrupter, meaning the chemicals are powerful enough to influence the functioning of hormones. Hayes and his colleague fed small doses of Atrazine to lab frogs. The scientists discovered 10 percent of male frogs changed to females after ingesting the herbicide. The newly female frogs remained genetically male, but had the ability to mate with other males. All of the spawn from those couples was male.

The findings of the study could be the missing link in solving the mystery of the significant global decline in amphibian populations:

Hayes said… that because Atrazine has been used for many years on crop lands all over the world, there is a strong likelihood that the chemical may be playing a major role in the global decline of populations of other amphibians as well as frogs that has puzzled scientists and altered the ecology in many parts of the world. “There is more and more evidence from other researchers,” he said, “that Atrazine is also damaging the immune systems of fish, reptiles and birds.”

A cabbage crop at sunset.  (Photo from Kevincole through Creative Commons)

Tim Pastor, a toxicologist for the Syngenta Crop Protection division at the company’s USA headquarters in Greensborough, N.C., called the study “fundamentally flawed,” adding that the results were “not plausible.”

The use of chemicals has been an environmental hot topic. Regardless of much controversy and studies suggesting the plastic additive BPA is an endocrine disrupter, the Oregon Senate struck down a proposal to ban the chemical from baby products. In California, a lawsuit filed two weeks ago claims PCB chemical toxins are being sold to unsuspecting consumers via unlabelled fish oil supplements. 

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