Original article (in Serbian) was published on 14/03/2023
A message spreading on Viber is calling for caution because of the herbicide atrazine, which allegedly “changes gender and turns young men into women”. The message goes on to state that “this chemical is mostly present in chocolate products, fruit and sweets, which can be found on the shelves in Lidl stores of the Rainforest Alliance company with the frog logo”.
However, while atrazine may be harmful to humans, the thesis that it turns men into women is unquestionably pseudoscientific. Namely, the study in which it was proven that atrazine changes sex was conducted on frogs, not on humans. Also, the “Rainforest Alliance” logo on the products sold in Lidl has nothing to do with the chemical composition of the food, i.e. atrazine, Lidl confirmed to us.
What is atrazine?
Atrazine is an artificially generated herbicide that is used to get rid of weeds in crops and is most often used in agriculture, but it is also used to control weeds near highways and other roads. As stated on the website of the US National Library of Medicine, this is “one of the most commonly used herbicides, with almost 34.5 million kilograms used each year” (1). In the European Union, in 2004, licenses for the use of this herbicide were withdrawn, but it is still used as a substance for the production of other chemicals, according to the website of the European Chemicals Agency. In the environment, atrazine is most often found in soil, but it is also found in water and air, according to a publication by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How dangerous is atrazine and does it turn men into women?
According to the website of the US National Library of Medicine, atrazine poses a threat to health and the environment. This institution, as well as the European Chemicals Agency, warned that careless use of atrazine can cause skin irritation. Scientists from the University of Melbourne, citing other studies on the harmful effects of atrazine, say it can lead to endocrine disruption in multiple classes of animals, including amphibians, fish, reptiles and rodents.
When we talk about the harmfulness of this chemical to humans, different studies provide different answers to that question. An American study from 2003 looked at the effect of atrazine on male fertility and found that it can affect the quality of sperm. On the other hand, a somewhat more recent study from 2014, which deals with the review of research published until then on the impact of atrazine on reproductive health, suggests that “the causal link between atrazine and unwanted pregnancy outcomes is not justified”.
But what about the claims that atrazine “changes gender and turns young men into women”? As stated in the Viber chain message, “scientist Dr. Tyrone Hayes discovered that atrazine changes the sexual orientation of frogs when this chemical is found in the water in which they live”. However, what is kept silent in the message, and what the fact-finding web portal Raskrinkavanje.ba, which dealt with the same topic, draws attention to, is that the frogs were continuously exposed to atrazine in the water during this study. The study also states that “frog skin absorbs atrazine at a much higher rate than mammalian skin”. Male frogs that participated in the study were “chemically castrated and fully feminized”, and four became females. Two of those four frogs even mated with other males and managed to produce eggs, Hayes’ research showed.
What does the Rainforest Alliance logo on products sold in Lidl represent?
The whole story in the Viber chain message about frogs changing gender is related to products available in Lidl stores that have the Rainforest Alliance emblem featuring a frog. However, this logo does not suggest that the products contain atrazine. The Rainforest Alliance is actually an international non-profit organization that mediates between businesses, farmers and other organizations, and its logo on a product guarantees the fulfilment of certification requirements, that is, the standards of this organization.
“The requirements of this standard refer to sustainable production, which implies the protection of nature and the protection of people involved in the production process. The logo on the certified products does not refer to the use or presence of the aforementioned herbicide, nor to its absence – because the certification process does not include this criterion”, Lidl’s public relations team told Tragac.
When the term atrazine is searched on the Rainforest Alliance website, the only result is this organization’s publication on pesticide management, which refers to holders of the organization’s garden certificates. In it, atrazine was placed on the list of “prohibited pesticides” and designated as a herbicide with a “severe or irreversible negative impact on human health or the environment” in the interpretation of the Rainforest Alliance.