Ideas change everything

The toxic baby

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Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer |

TEDWomen 2010

• December 2010

Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect her unborn child? So she asked scientist Tyrone Hayes to brief her on one he studied closely: atrazine, a herbicide used on corn. (Hayes, an expert on amphibians, is a critic of atrazine, which displays a disturbing effect on frog development.) Onstage together at TEDWomen, Hayes and Chaffer tell their story.

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Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect her unborn child? So she asked scientist Tyrone Hayes to brief her on one he studied closely: atrazine, a herbicide used on corn. (Hayes, an expert on amphibians, is a critic of atrazine, which displays a disturbing effect on frog development.) Onstage together at TEDWomen, Hayes and Chaffer tell their story.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

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About the speakers

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Tyrone Hayes studies frogs and amphibians -- and the effects on their bodies of common farming chemicals.

Penelope Jagessar Chaffer

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Penelope Jagessar Chaffer made the film "Toxic Baby," exploring environmental toxins through interviews and surreal imagery.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.