On Science Friday this past week, Holly Ingraham of UCSF was interviewed on her new study of atrazine’s impact on human placental cells. This builds on our conversation with atrazine, starting from March’s discussion on atrazine in frogs. In the study, they showed atrazine (& its metabolized products) increased activity of a gene that results in abnormal baby weight. Also they found amplification of a gene that is highly active in infertile women (no direct association yet).

Science Friday interview with Holly Ingraham

Holly also studied atrazine impacts on zebrafish, a widely used animal in developmental studies. She observed some genetic changes at doses as low as 2 part per billion (EPA’s drinking water limit is 3 ppb). In terms of human effects, she started to see genetic changes at 200 ppb (syngenta called these levels environmentally irrelevant). The chief effect in humans was changing hormone signaling mechanisms, which is fairly significant.

Future studies will focus on how atrazine affects the brain, specifically areas that control metabolism. This will hopefully shed light on why atrazine affects endocrine cells.

A quote from Holly:

These atrazine- sensitive genes are central to normal reproduction and are found in steroid producing tissues. You have to wonder about the long-term effects of exposing the rapidly developing fetus to atrazine or other endocrine disrupters.

Her research was funded by the National Institutes for Health.

Takeaway:

More Info:
Paper in PLoS One
Science Friday chat with Holly
UCSF Press Release on Study
Recent Paper Questioning Reproducibility of Atrazine Effects in Frogs

KQED Quest ran a great piece tonight detailing the rapid decline in frog population, especially here in the Bay Area. Frog population declines have been happening for over 10 years. Our March speaker, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, detailed the rising data indicating severe stress on frogs, from climate change to pesticides. The resulting immuno-suppression is scientists’ best guess at the decline.

Check out the piece below. It also indicates how a newly discovered fungus is playing a role in the decline.

And here’s an additional web only piece featuring Tyrone Hayes.

Last month, Dr. Tyrone Hayes talked about “crossing the line” when he publicly called for people to get involved on the atrazine issue. He has faced immense criticism from colleagues, the government, and private entities for crossing that line.

I’m glad he crossed that line…the talk on atrazine was one of the most moving and infuriating I’ve ever attended. In a conversation with Al Gore, Tyrone learned that if two states bring up atrazine legislation, just TWO, open hearings on atrazine at the US congressional level could happen.

Tyrone maintains a website on atrazine: www.atrazinelovers.com

On his website, Tyrone offers a few links to be in action around atrazine.

1. Contact the EPA
Steeger.Thomas@epamail.epa.gov
Schnackenbeck.Joy@epamail.epa.gov
Bradbury.Stephen@epamail.epa.gov
Lindsay.Anne@epamail.epa.gov

2. Write your Congressperson

MN05EllisonKeith@mail.house.gov

This letter is a request urging you and your office to: 1) pursue a ban on the herbicide atrazine as described in Bill H.R. 3399 authored by Representative Keith Ellison, 2) investigate the chemical industry and EPA’s collaboration during the review of atrazine as requested by Keith Ellison on June 23, 2007 in a letter to Representative Henry Waxman, Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Government, and 3) to further urge the EPA to develop an effective plan for regulating atrazine and other endocrine disrupting chemicals as requested by Senator Barbara Boxer (Dallas Morning News, Sunday, May 27, 2007).

3. Write Syngenta, the manufacturer of Atrazine

tim.pastoor@syngenta.com
sherry.ford@syngenta.com
michael.vanausdeln@syngenta.com
alan.hosmer@syngenta.com

I urge you to get involved in any of the above ways. You voice can be the difference.

If you missed the pesticide science cafe, boy did you miss a good one. Here’s a 2 minutes recap:

The Presentation (Flash is required)
To move to the next slide, click on the right side of the current slide. Click on the left side to go back.

Videos from the Pesticide event are up on the website. As always, you can watch snippets of the video on YouTube as well.

This little guy is atrazine, the most widely used herbicide in the US (about 76 million pounds annually). Generally, it is used in corn and soybean farming; it is incredibly effective in preventing weeds and grass coming up between the plants….requires no tilling (i.e. no work) = no erosion/runoff. Industrials farmers love this stuff.

Atrazine typically has a relatively short half life, about 30 -100 days in soil. It breaks down via chlorination or by microbes to cyanuric acid…which is a carbon and nitrogen source in the soil.

Atrazine is also highly solubilized in water…often traveling into streams, runoff, and rainwater.

Below is a map detailing atrazine use in the US (circa 1997)

So why should I care?…Atrazine has been shown to be a potent endocrine disruptor in animals (at various doses). It has the chemical ability to transform testosterone into estrogen (mainly shown in fish, amphibians, and reptiles). Essentially, it can induce hermaphroditic behavior. It almost goes without saying that this change is devastating, especially to immune system resulting in increased mortality rates (again shown most predominantly in amphibians).

That being said, the EPA maintains the safety of atrazine when used properly and in low concentrations. Syngeta, the manufacturer, also maintains its safety.

I’ll be posting a more detailed analysis of atrazine effects in water. But for now, here are a number of links to more resources.

More Info
Washington Post Article
Dr. Hayes Website on Atrazine
Study of Atrazine effects on Frogs
Union of Concerned Scientists Article
NRDC article
EPA Page
Syngeta’s Atrazine Info Page