The work is significant, not just for what it shows about DDT and long-term health impacts, but also because it underscores a critical need for more long-term studies of the impacts of other pesticides and chemicals we have been, and currently are, exposed to, according to study author Barbara Cohn, director and senior research scientist of the Child Health and Development Studies program at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California.
We need more and more thorough testing to exclude carcinogens from use and better protect public health, Brody said.
In , the institute published an analysis of scientific research submitted to the EPA on 28 pesticides linked with mammary-gland tumors and found the EPA dismissed the evidence for 19 of the DDT dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane was introduced in the s as a highly effective insecticide designed to combat the spread of malaria, typhus, and other diseases carried by insects. It also was used for eradicating insects harmful to crops and livestock, and it was embraced for use around homes and gardens as well.
The pesticide was considered safe enough to be sprayed widely through US towns. On warm summer nights, trucks carrying DDT would roll down residential streets, fogging entire neighborhoods with the chemical to combat mosquitoes.
Still, DDT remains in use in some countries. DDT is considered to be an endocrine-disrupting chemical , or an EDC, a category of chemicals that researchers find particularly worrisome because of evidence that they alter and disrupt hormones important to good health, including reproductive health, as well as neurological and immune functions.
Many other chemicals are now known to be EDCs, and both Cohn and Brody said we could head off many health problems by curtailing use. The chemical does not easily break down and is known by scientists to accumulate in the tissues of animals. It is up to individual countries to decide whether or not to use DDT.
EPA works with other agencies and countries to advise them on how DDT programs are developed and monitored, with the goal that DDT be used only within the context of programs referred to as Integrated Vector Management. IVM is a decision-making process for use of resources to yield the best possible results in vector control, and that it be kept out of agricultural sectors.
Skip to main content. Contact Us. Development of DDT DDT dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the s. DDT is: known to be very persistent in the environment, will accumulate in fatty tissues, and can travel long distances in the upper atmosphere. All include community involvement, appropriate technology and investment in public health capacity and education. These community-based, integrated solutions have proven successful in places as diverse as Mexico, Kenya and Vietnam.
Unfortunately, vocal groups such as Africa Fighting Malaria continue to promote a simplistic "DDT or nothing" debate , ignoring on-the-ground evidence from around the world that more effective approaches are saving lives without putting communities in harm's way from exposure to the long-lasting chemical.
PAN works with international allies, governments and on-the-ground groups in Africa to mobilize resources and political will to combat malaria, and remains active in international legal processes to support the global phase out of DDT and promote the safest and most effective malaria control solutions. Skip to main content. If there is a single pesticide almost everyone can name, it's DDT. Human Health Harms The science on DDT's human health impacts has continued to mount over the years, with recent studies showing harm at very low levels of exposure.
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