Herbicide link to cancer, sex defects
Mathew Denholm, The Australian
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AUSTRALIANS are being exposed to dangerous levels of a common herbicide linked to cancers and reproductive defects, a US scientist has warned.
Tyrone Hayes, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, will meet Australia’s pesticide regulator and government scientists today to urge a ban on atrazine. The herbicide is widely used in Australia on crops including corn, sugar cane and canola, as well as forestry plantations.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority is reviewing the use of atrazine.
The National Health and Medical Research Council yesterday said it planned to review guidelines on safe levels of the herbicide in drinking water.
Professor Hayes said he would urge regulators to follow the EU in banning atrazine and its sister herbicide simazine.
And he would present the findings of his research showing atrazine caused defects in the sexual development of frogs.
"We have shown that atrazine is a potent endocrine disrupter that causes a hormone imbalance that leads to a decrease in testosterone and an increase in oestrogen in exposed males (frogs)," he said. "The net result of that is that these males develop as hermaphrodites. Based on lab rat models, as well as epidemiological studies in humans, this same mechanism leads to prostate cancer and breast cancer and decreased fertility in humans."
Professor Hayes is touring Australia and will be joined by Tasmanian GP Alison Bleaney, who says cancers and other serious illnesses are partly attributable to atrazine run-off from forests into waterways.
He said Australian regulations deemed atrazine safe in drinking water at a rate of 40 parts per billion, compared with the US standard of 3ppb. "That compares to 0.1ppb that causes the problems I’ve described in amphibians," he said.
In July last year, three Tasmanian rivers were found with levels of atrazine and simazine at 0.13 to 0.18ppb.
Professor Hayes said Australians would be developing cancers and other medical conditions because of exposure to atrazine in drinking water.
An APVMA spokesman said Professor Hayes’s research was not supported by US Environment Protection Agency studies.
However, the APVMA organised a forum in Canberra today to allow Professor Hayes to express his views.
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