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Subject:   Frog Deformities----------
Date:     Sat, 09 Oct 1999 12:56:30 -0400
From:     Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To:     Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
 

Lyndon, thought you might like to read some studies on how your "registered" pesticide poisons are linked to deformed frogs: By The Associated Press

Pesticides used in agriculture have been linked with some frog deformities in Minnesota, according to two new studies.

The studies are the culmination of 18 months of lab tests on pond water from Minnesota and elsewhere. The results suggest that a combination of chemicals appears to be causing malformations of the frogs' limbs, eyes, mouths and other parts.

 Researchers said the mystery of the deformities and whether the causes could also affect humans were not resolved in the studies, published in the October issue of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

 " At this point we can' t say that this is something that applies only to frogs, " said Jim Burkhart, co-author of the studies and a biochemist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
 Water and sediment samples were taken from six Minnesota ponds, three of which had produced lots of deformed frogs. The locations weren't named. In analyzing the water, scientists found chemicals, several of which are products of pesticides.

The NIEHS study did not rule out other potential causes of deformities, such as ultraviolet radiation or parasites.

In the other study, scientists took Minnesota pond water and used it to raise frogs. The water from cleaner sites did not cause problems, but water and sediment from ponds in which deformed frogs were found caused the same kinds of malformations, Burkhart said.

Deformities included skull and face defects and abnormal development of the mouth and eyes. Filtering the water to remove some of the chemicals reduced the deformities significantly.

The most obvious deformities seen in Minnesota frogs have been twisted spines or malformed hind limbs and other problems such as webbed skin or missing digits.

Maneb, a fungicide, and propylthiourea, a pesticide breakdown product, induced some types of hind limb defects in the lab frogs.

 Burkhart said the most intriguing finding was that some of the compounds appear to be more toxic in natural waters in Minnesota than in the solutions prepared in the labs.

 Compounds segregated and mixed with lab water produced deformities, he said, but when they were mixed with " clean pond" water, the deformities were much worse.

 " The question we' re asking is, what is the interaction between some of these manmade compounds with the nontoxic compounds of natural origin at some of these sites?"  he said.

Doug Fort, a co-author of the studies and a toxicologist at the Stover Group, a private research and development firm in Stillwater, Okla., said the research is more suggestive than definitive.

He said several of the chemicals suspected of causing deformities appear to have one similarity: They affect the thyroid, the primary gland responsible for growth, maturation and development in most animals, including humans.

When thyroid hormones were added to some of the experiments, he said, the number of hind limb defects declined.

 Judy Helgen, a wetlands biologist for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, called the research " a solid step in the direction we need to go."

 " We' re still open to other hypotheses, but it certainly looks from these (scientific) papers like chemicals or some combinations that include chemicals are responsible for different types of malformations, " she said.

 During the past four years, deformed frogs have also been reported in several other states, including Wisconsin, Vermont, Oregon and California, and in Quebec.

                            Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Well Lyndon, when will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use safe, unregistered alternatives and common sense to control pest problems in California rather than your dangerous, untested "registered' poisons?  Sadly, Common Sense is not too common.

Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten.
 

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