Forum Speaker Crosses the Line to Make a Point about Environmental Danger

Tyrone Hayes outlined the environmental dangers of Atrazine at the first Wooster Forum lecture Monday night in McGaw Chapel.

WOOSTER, Ohio - Tyrone Hayes may have crossed the line at the opening lecture of the 2007 Wooster Forum Monday night in McGaw Chapel, but he certainly didn't overstep his bounds. As professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, Hayes knows the importance of remaining impartial and unbiased when conducting research, but after years of studying the effects of the herbicide Atrazine, he felt it was time to take a stand.

Speaking to students, faculty, staff, and visitors, Hayes explained how Atrazine was contaminating the environment during his talk, "From Silent Spring to Silent Night: What Do Frogs Tell Us About Human Health?" Hayes' address, which was the first of four in a series titled "Green Footprints on the Blue Planet," was insightful, entertaining, and ominous. The 60-minute Power Point presentation was skillfully structured to appeal to both scientists and non-scientists in the audience.

"Why should we care about frogs?" Hayes asked. "Because frogs have the same hormones as humans, so whatever happens to them as a result of Atrazine, could also happen to us."

What's happening to frogs is that Atrazine is converting testosterone into estrogen in a process Hayes calls "chemical castration." African clawed frogs, the most commonly used amphibian in lab testing, have been found to have both testes and ovaries after exposure to Atrazine. This abnormality has potentially devastating consequences, including threats to the immune system and damage to internal organs, specifically the kidney and liver. As a result, a frog's development is stunted or altered during gestation.

Of even greater concern is the effect of Atrazine on humans. According to Hayes, this herbicide has been found to increase prostate and breast cancer, which led him to step outside of academic protocol and call for a ban on the chemical. "We use 80 million pounds of the Atrazine in this country every year," he said. "It has been denied regulatory approval in Europe where it is manufactured, but we continue to use it as we have the past 49 years, and no one is doing anything about it."

Hayes was particularly critical of the Environmental Protection Agency, which refuses to outlaw the substance, despite the fact that much of its own research has identified the dangers. He also blasted the manufacturer of Atrazine (Syngenta), which admitted that its employees had eight times the national average of prostate cancer. "I crossed the line because I don't believe we can wait any longer," said Hayes. "Like canaries in a coal mine, the frogs are giving us an important warning."

Hayes meticulously described his research procedure, which began with a lab model and progressed to comparative studies, then to field studies, and finally to field simulations, before coming back to the lab model. But just to be sure everyone got the point, Hayes summarized his presentation in a novel and memorable way - he recited a clever and humorous rhythmic rap, accompanied by on-screen images, that left the audience informed and entertained.

The next forum event, scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 27, features Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who will discuss "Our Environmental Destiny" at 7:30 p.m. in McGaw Chapel.