Herbicide may be detrimental to people’s health
The negative effects of an herbicide on amphibians throughout the United States may not seem interesting to some but to Tyrone Hayes, it’s a matter of life or death.
“Our impact is measured in an insignificant way,” Hayes said. “I now measure my impact differently.”
As a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkley, he is researching the herbicide atrazine, and its effect on the sexual development of male frogs which in turn could have a large impact on humans. As part of Utah State University’s Ecology Center Seminar Series, Hayes presented his research during a lecture Thursday in the Natural Resources building.
Through various laboratory experiments, Hayes found that atrazine, the most widely used herbicide in the United States and one of the most common contaminants in ground water, when exposed to amphibians, the animals develop the hormone estrogen and grow eggs in their testicles.
“Obviously this is not normal, ” Hayes said.
Hayes took his research one step further and tested the amphibians in their natural environment and found similar results. He also tested other factors such as the effects other herbicides in the water may have, finding they slowed the process atrazine has on amphibians. It also proved unpredictable as to which herbicide would have a negative effect when combined with atrazine, Hayes said.
“We’re trying to build a body of evidence to show if this is real,” Hayes said. “Atrazine does reduce testosterone and increases estrogen across vertebrate classes.”
If atrazine is found in the drinking water of neighboring corn fields where the herbicide is spread, it could potentially form cancer cells human beings.
-mmackay@cc.usu.edu