According to a report, atrazine, one of the most common agents used in weed killers, can turn male frogs into females.
The results of a recent experiment show the chemical is known to disrupt hormones in the amphibians. The find could now provides answers for why some areas of the world continue to experience a decreasing number of frogs.
"Atrazine-exposed males were both demasculinized (chemically castrated) and completely feminized as adults," Tyrone Hayes of the University of California-Berkeley wrote in the study. The results were tabulated for the National Academy of Sciences.
Released Monday, March 1, the report said artazine also can caused frogs to develop both male and female features, a condition called hermaphroditism.
"Before, we knew, we got fewer males than we should have, and we got hermaphrodites," Hayes said. "We have clearly shown that many of these animals are sex-reversed males.".
Whether artazine can cause gender-transforming effects in other species isn't known. Some fear humans could run the same risk. Other experts, however, note frogs are vulnerable to array of pollutants because of their thin skin and often prolonged exposure to polluted water.
Some countries have banned the use of artazine altogether. Officials within the European Union are making the results of the study known to other nations and may pressure countries such as the United States to follow suit of the ban it instituted in 2004.
More than 80 million pounds of artazine is used annually in the United States. Artazine is known to be easily transported into rivers lakes and public groundwater systems via runoff. Experts estimate about 500,000 pounds of artazine is precipitated in rainfall each year.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last October it was reviewing the health impacts of artazine. The results of the review have not been made public as of Tuesday, March 2.
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