News Coverage
Hermaphrodite Frogs Linked to Pesticide Use
Study finds more sex organ abnormalities in 1950s, when chemicals were more widespread.
Published March 2, 2005
Scientists who compared frogs collected over the last 150 years have discovered a dramatic increase in hermaphrodites during the times when contamination from the pesticide DDT and other chlorinated compounds was widespread.
Frogs with both male and female reproductive organs were rare in the 19th and early 20th centuries but more common during the 1950s, when the largest volumes of the chemicals were used.
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