Common weedkiller turns male frogs into females

Source: Reuters

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Atrazine, one of the most commonly used and controversial weedkillers, can turn male frogs into females, researchers reported on Monday.

The experiment is the first to show such complete effects of atrazine, which had been known to disrupt hormones and which is one of the chief suspects in the decline of amphibians such as frogs around the world.

"Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized as adults," Tyrone Hayes of the University of California Berkeley and colleagues wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The chemical had been shown to disrupt development and make frogs develop both male and female features -- termed hermaphroditism. This study of 40 male frogs shows the process can go even further, Hayes said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0111969720100302

wouldst a lot of republicans who are ranting about gay rights get sprayed down.

That alone would solve most of our problems.

I found a web site that lists brand names atrazine is sold under

http://www.atrazinefacts.com/product-list-31.asp

and get your drinking water from a well, consider having the well tested for pesticides, just for giggles. And remember, endocrine disruptors work their magic on fish and amphibians at doses well below the traditional lowest observed effects level and LD50/LC50 figures on which EPA bases their analyses of what is safe or unsafe.

Sweet!