Scientist: Tyrone Hayes Being Targeted by Herbicide Firm Syngenta

Silencing the Scientist: Tyrone Hayes on Being Targeted by Herbicide Firm Syngenta (PLEASE WATCH 15 minutes)

Scientist Tyrone Hayes of the University of California, Berkeley discovered a widely used herbicide may have harmful effects on the endocrine system. But when he tried to publish the results, the chemical’s manufacturer launched a campaign to discredit his work. Hayes was first hired in 1997 by a company, which later became agribusiness giant Syngenta, to study their product, atrazine, a pesticide that is applied to more than half the corn crops in the United States, and widely used on golf courses and Christmas tree farms. When Hayes found results Syngenta did not expect — that atrazine causes sexual abnormalities in frogs, and could cause the same problems for humans — it refused to allow him to publish his findings. A new article in The New Yorker magazine uses court documents from a class action lawsuit against Syngenta to show how it sought to smear Hayes’ reputation and prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from banning the profitable chemical, which is already banned by the European Union.

KEY PASSAGE FROM WHAT WAS DISCOVERED:

"We found that the larynx, or the voice box, in exposed males didn’t grow properly. And this was an indication that the male hormone testosterone was not being produced at appropriate levels. And eventually we found that not only were these males demasculinized, or chemically castrated, but they also were starting to develop ovaries or starting to develop eggs. And eventually we discovered that these males didn’t breed properly, that some of the males actually completely turned into females. So we had genetic males that were laying eggs and reproducing as females. And now we’re starting to show that some of these males actually show, I guess what we’d call homosexual behavior. They actually prefer to mate with other males."

1. Since 1993, Seven EU countries in the European Union ("EU") have banned atrazine: France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany,Austria and Italy. These countries have a policy of banning pesticides that occur in drinking water at levels higher than 0.1 parts per billion.
2. SO WHY IS IT LEGAL IN AMERICA?
3. Full Transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/21/silencing_the_scientist_tyrone_hayes_on