The story begins as every young man's fantasy...
What adolescent boy wouldn't dream of having his dog lead him straight to the biggest darned frog anyone had ever found?
That was Timothy Kent's day in January of 1999, when he dug out and dragged home the 28 pound monster near Lake Apopka, Florida.
Florida Fish and Wildlife came by to see it. The folks from the Orlando Sun-Times came by to see it. Certainly everyone in the neighborhood and from parts all around came by to see it.
Timothy was given permission to keep the frog as a pet and a local bait shop donated grubs to help feed it.
That would be the Happy Ending of this report were it not for one notable comment to a reporter by hydrologist Jerrold Bankman with the Saint John's River Water Management offices, who also came by to see it.
"I'm not too suprised since it came from Lake Apopka," stated Bankman.
Seems local Lake Apopka is quite the polluted mess.
Sewage dumping from a the town of Winter Gardens, contamination from various nearby citrus farms, and runoff from a Superfund site just a mile from the lake combine to make Apopka a case study in the effects of certain chemicals on the animals of that area.
Apopka's true claim to fame is not giant frogs, but tiny alligators. Tiny MALE alligators, and tiny in the place where it really counts to a fellow... even if you are a gator.
Dramatic decreases in the alligator populations noted during the late 1980's led researchers to compare the young animals of Apopka with animals from a relatively pristine lake in the region. They found Apopka's animals abnormal at all stages of sexual development. Female animals were described as "superestrogenized," and some young males were found to have penises half the size of normal. The males also formed some body structures similar to egg cavities in females. Neither sex was producing appropriate amounts of reproductive hormones. |
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Not as Cool as it Looks
Feminized sex organs have been found in male embryos of common terns at a waste site in Massachusetts.
Anglers in Uxbridge, England, reported common catches of fish that were partially male and partially female near a sewage treatment site.
Similar hemaphroditic fish are found in the Great Lakes.
The culprit in these and other cases are believed to be xenoestrogens, chemicals that mimic normal hormones. These estrogen mimics are found in many substances that environmentalists have fought for years, such as PCBs, DDT and many pesticides, but others, such as nonylphenol, are widely used in plastics and considered benign. Xenoestrogens are also present in some detergents.
Now, would that we could leave this to be the problems of a few lovelorn and confused trans-gendered fishies, the insecurities of a few alligators in the boy's locker room. However, further investigation reveals that there seems to be something going on with folks in the industrialized world, as well...
Several scientific reports have led the EPA's Health Effects Research lab to convene a meeting in North Carolina to develop a national research strategy.
Recently, the Journal of American Medical Association published an article warning of the dangers of xenoestrogens.
A lengthy report from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a federal agency, describes serious deterioration of the male reproductive system in many regions of the world. |
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In a well-accepted study by the University Department of Growth and Reproduction in Copenhagen, sperm counts were found to have suffered a "genuine decline" (as much as 42 percent) during the last 50 years, as well as a "concomitant increase in genitourinary anomalies such as testicular cancer," suggesting "a growing impact of factors with serious effects on male gonadal function."
Another study by the California Department of Health Services supported a finding of "significant decline in sperm density in the United States and Europe."
Incidences of hemaphrodism and undescended testicles, as well as breast cancer, are also increasingly documented.
But, on a much happier note, it's all widely under-publicized by the major media. This is probably so that folks can sleep at night. The truth about xenoestrogens in the water systems of the industrial world may as well remain in the dark, because, after all, there is nothing to do about it. The possibility that highly valued human products like pesticides, plastics or detergents will not be part of our lives for the immediate future is really not a possibility at all, and just how long xenoestrogens will linger with us as a result is unknown. The ultimate seriousness of the situation is unknown.
So relax, because it's Already Happening...
...and Timmy, you hug that big frog and other boyhood joys to you for all they are worth. We'll hope that someday you will want to give up the frog for girls.
If not, hey, there's always cloning.
—Disher X
More:
What Cautionary Tales Can Lake Apopka Tell?
—Anna Maria Gillis
Evidence for decreasing quality of semen during past 50 years.
—E. Carlsen, A. Giwercman, N. Keiding, N. E. Skakkebaek
The Loudest Ribbet In The World
—Derek Barnes
Archive of this article can be found here.
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