Tyrone Hayes
 Tyrone Hayes    (biologist, whistleblower) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 29 July 1967 |
| Nationality | US |
| Alma mater | Harvard |
| Exposed | • herbicides/Dangers • atrazine |
| Interests | • atrazine • endocrine disruptors • Big Agriculture • Syngenta |
Dr. Tyrone Hayes has spoken out about the danger of atrazine as an endocrine disruptor that demasculinizes and feminizes male frogs.
Research
In 2007, Hayes was a co-author on a paper that detailed atrazine inducing mammary and prostate cancer in laboratory rodents and highlighted atrazine as a potential cause of reproductive cancers in humans. At a presentation to the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in 2007, Hayes presented results of his studies that showed chemical castration in frogs; individuals of both sexes had developed bisexual reproductive organs.[1]
Syngenta
In 2014, New Yorker writer Rachel Aviv reported that Big Agriculture corporation Syngenta might have been orchestrating an attack not only on Hayes' scientific credibility, but on other scientists as well whose studies have shown atrazine to have adverse effects on the environment and/or human and animal health.[2]
Aviv reported that Syngenta had criticized Hayes' science and conduct in press releases, letters to the editor, and through a formal ethics complaint filed at University of California-Berkeley.[2] Internal Syngenta documents from 2005 released by a class-action lawsuit in 2014 show ways that Syngenta conspired to discredit Hayes, including attempting to get journals to retract his work, and investigating his funding and private life.[2][3][4] In one of the 2005 e-mails obtained by class-action lawsuit plaintiffs, the company's communications consultants had written about plans to track Hayes' speaking engagements and prepare audiences with Syngenta's counterpoints to Hayes's message on atrazine. Syngenta subsequently stated that many of the documents unsealed in the lawsuits refer to "ideas that were never implemented."[2]
In 2010 Syngenta forwarded an ethics complaint to the University of California Berkeley, complaining that Hayes had been sending sexually explicit and harassing e-mails to Syngenta scientists, including quoting the rapper DMX.[5] Some of these emails were obtained and published by Gawker.[6] Legal counsel from the university responded that Hayes had acknowledged sending letters having "unprofessional and offensive" content, and that he had agreed not to use similar language in future communications.[5][7] According to Hayes, the situation had escalated after Syngenta executive Tim Pastoor had threatened Hayes and his family.[8]
References
- ↑ http://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2007/april/science-amphibian.cfm quote=I could take tap water that is regulated by the U.S. EPA," Hayes noted, "and I could chemically castrate frogs."
- ↑ a b c d http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/02/10/140210fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all
- ↑ http://www.sourcewatch.org/images/f/f6/Exhibit_19_Part1.pdf
- ↑ http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine
- ↑ a b http://www.nature.com/articles/466913a
- ↑ http://gawker.com/5620781/dr-tyrone-hayes-biologist-cock-fixated-megalomaniac-email-addict
- ↑ http://www.atrazine.com/Amphibians/Univ_of_CA-7-19-10.pdf
- ↑ https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/02/tyrone-hayes-atrazine-syngenta-feud-frog-endangered/
