As per the research conducted by Tyrone B. Hayes and his team at University of California, Berkeley, the use of atrazine can emasculate male frogs and also turn them into females.

The study has been published in the online journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.’

Atrazine interferes with hormones
In a lab test conducted by the researchers, it was found that exposure to the chemical resulted in castrating nearly 90 percent of the frogs and alerting the sex of 10 percent.

Nearly three quarters of the frogs tested show reduced libido, low sperm count, and reduced testosterone levels.

Hayes, a biologist and herpetologist at the university, stated, “The effects of atrazine in the long term have been shown to demasculinize or chemically castrate [frogs], combined with complete feminization of some animals."

The scientists believe that these sexual abnormalities could be due to the chemical’s interference with frogs’ hormones such as estrogen and testosterone.

The researchers also found that 40 percent of African clawed frogs are born and brought up in water containing high concentration of atrazine.

Study’s findings challenged
Syngenta, a large Swiss agribusiness company that manufactures pesticides, including atrazine, has rebuffed the findings of the study, claiming that the study has been poorly conducted and there are many irregularities.

"We haven't seen these kinds of responses that Dr. Hayes reports," stated Keith Solomon, an environmental toxicologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and a former consultant at Syngenta.

The manufacturer on its site states that atrazine has “no adverse effect on frogs,” adding that it has conducted research that shows “that atrazine, even at the slightest levels sometimes found in water, has no effect on the normal development

sos

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Added on March 3, 2010, 5:07 pmits just matter of time b4 they used human as the test subj..

This post has been edited by ELm_ELm: Mar 3 2010, 05:07 PM

A cheaper way of sex conversion! how about that?

its still illegal, but hey, it wont stop them using it on human..

They would most probably test it on several species of animals before they would test it on humans.

Ethics eh?

^Same discussion again? People will always oppose one another. Ethics huh, in this case its rather more unethical to test it on humans (unless they willingly want that uhh..sex change?)

any chance of the frogs are hermaphrodite?

Its not just the question of willingness, it is also the question of it being affordable, too

Wheather this is true or flase does not matter now. To be on the safe side guys should take note what contains atrazine. Imagine awaking up one day without the most treasured part of your body.