New Study Finds Very Low Levels of Exposure to Common Herbicide Causes Sex Reversal, Hermaphroditism in Frogs.Business Editors, Environmental Writers RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK Research Triangle Park, research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. Named for the triangle formed by Duke Univ. , N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2002 Study Published Today in Environmental Health Perspectives Finds Impact of Atrazine atrazine a triazine herbicide; it is not poisonous at levels of intake likely to be encountered in agriculture. atrazine Toxicology A nonphytoestrogenic herbicide. See Phytoestrogen. Exposure the Same in Lab, Field Tests A new study published today in the science journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that even very low-level exposure to atrazine, the most commonly used herbicide in the United States, altered reproductive organs in developing male leopard frogs. The study comes at a time when the effects of atrazine on environmental health are undergoing scientific review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and . Today's study compared results for frogs exposed in the lab with those for some 800 frogs found in locations from Utah to the Iowa-Illinois border. Observations in both the lab frogs and the wild frogs were the same: exposure at concentrations as low as 0.1 part per billion (ppb) resulted in retarded gonadal gonadal pertaining to or arising from a gonad. See also testicular, ovarian. gonadal cords cords formed by epithelial cells which migrate from the mesonephric tubules in the embryo to the gonadal ridge and establish the indifferent development, the presence of female reproductive cells in male testes (hermaphroditism hermaphroditism Condition of having both male and female reproductive organs (see reproductive system). It is normal in most flowering plants and in some invertebrate animals. True human hermaphrodites are extremely rare. ), and even complete sex reversal. This exposure concentration is 30 times lower than the current drinking water standard of 3 ppb. The study authors found that 36% of the males exposed to 0.1 ppb atrazine had underdeveloped testes. Further, 29% of the animals exposed at this level displayed varying degrees of sex reversal. Some males appeared to undergo complete sex reversal and had gonads almost completely filled with immature female egg cells. At one field site, on the North Platte River North Platte River River, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska, U.S. One of the two main arms of the Platte River, it rises in northern Colorado, flows north into Wyoming, then turns east and southeast across the Nebraska border to join the South Platte and form the Platte. in Wyoming, 92% of the males observed had testicular oocytes, and many of the animals showed advanced stages of complete sex reversal. There were no observable effects in atrazine-treated females. The study team was headed by Tyrone B. Hayes of the Laboratory for Integrative Studies in Amphibian Biology and the University of California-Berkeley. Other authors include Kelly Haston, Mable Tsui, Anhthu Hoang, Cathryn Haeffele, and Aaron Vonk. EHP is the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is one of 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),which is a component of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The Director of the NIEHS is Dr. David A. Schwartz. , one of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Noun 1. Department of Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Health and Human Services, HHS . More information is available online at http://www.ehponline.org. Editor's note: A full copy of the report is available by fax or e-mail (PDF format) to working media at no charge. Go to www.ehponline.org/press, or contact using the phone number listed or e-mail adams6@niehs.nih.gov. |
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