State (MN) Cancels Scientist's Speech On Atrazine & Amphibians

[hatrack]

"A scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, was to be keynote speaker at an upcoming conference sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Then state officials learned the topic of his speech: his latest research linking the herbicide atrazine to frog abnormalities. Now, Prof. Tyrone Hayes has been uninvited -- by order of the agency's commissioner.

Hayes, an endocrinologist who studies how chemicals affect amphibians, won't address the annual environmental conference in February even though his research is of particular interest in the state where schoolchildren discovered frogs with extra legs and other deformities nine years ago.

Hayes said his removal from the program is an act of censorship by a state agency bowing to agricultural interests and pesticide companies that don't like his findings. "Initially, before the MPCA uninvited me, they asked if I would remove the words 'atrazine' and 'pesticide' from the title of my talk, and of course I refused to do that because that's what I work on," said Hayes. "My response was either you want me to talk or you don't," he said.

EDIT

(Ed. - Conference coordinator Jennifer) Anthony-Powell responded on Sept. 28: "Atrazine, atrazine, atrazine. This isn't a Dept. of Ag. conference and they are thinking there is a possibility that they are going to be attacked and not present to defend themselves." Anthony-Powell said there was concern that Hayes' talk might become "anti-government."

In an interview Tuesday, Anthony-Powell said that Wayne Anderson, an official in the MPCA commissioner's office, had approached her and raised these concerns. Anderson, who is the agency's liaison with the Minnesota Agriculture Department, could not be reached for comment. Hayes immediately responded to the Sept. 28 e-mail. He said that his data had been published by top scientific journals. He acknowledged that he has been critical of government approaches to pesticide regulations, and he offered to share the keynote speech with government and industry representatives. Hayes, a professor in Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology, said that some of his latest research suggests new ways that pesticides, including atrazine, may cause development problems in amphibians. "I will of course talk about this because it is important ... and it seems the government does not want people to know," he said in the e-mail. On Sept. 29 MPCA officials called Hayes and withdrew the invitation to speak."

EDIT

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/5041489.html

[madrchsod]

1. the people know

the fisherman know,the state officials know,and i`m sure the newspapers report it. well at least they do along the rock river in southern wisconsin and northern illinois. oh i forgot, i live in a democratic state.

[chicaloca]

2. particularly sad considering this study....

that's being discussed in Latest Breaking News:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=905661

[Buzz Clik]

3. You live in a Midwestern state? Atrazine in your tap water.

Unless you are using water from a deep aquifer, atrazine is in the water from your tap. Atrazine is widely used, mobile, and doesn't degrade quickly in surface water.

Cheers!

[Viking12]

4. I wonder what the pesticide industry funded studies found?

"Scientific understanding about atrazine's potential effects on frogs is a work in progress. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials reviewed 17 studies on the topic in 2003, including two by Hayes and 12 funded by the pesticide industry. They found insufficient data "to indicate that atrazine will or will not cause adverse developmental effects in amphibians."

[Nihil]

5. Guarantees that there was no problem?

... and probably a recommendation to add it to the water supply ...

[blindpig]

6. "anti-government"

anti-corporate, what's the difference? Apparently not much.
Gods save the frogs.