Hightower Lowdown

As TV nature shows amply demonstrate, it’s a brutal world out there, with one critter devouring another. But at least that’s a natural cycle, and I find it a lot less fearsome than this recent headline: “Weed Killer Deforms Sex Organs in Frogs.”

The National Academy of Science reports that young frogs living in water with low doses of the weed killer, atrazine, develop multiple sex organs or grow both male and female organs.

Atrazine is the most commonly used weed killer in the U.S., widely sprayed on lawns, fields, roadsides, golf courses—all over. Atrazine residues run off into our waterways, and it’s now found in our drinking water, groundwater, streams, snow runoff—even the rain contains atrazine.

Ask the frogs what that means. Atrazine causes male frog cells to produce an enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen, destroying their reproductivity. This is happening at much lower levels of contamination than was previously considered a problem.

Are we at risk? The research leader shrugs: “I’m not saying it’s safe for humans. I’m not saying it’s unsafe for humans. All I’m saying is that it makes hermaphrodites of frogs.”

And all we’re saying is that there must be better ways to deal with weeds.