Debating the Health Effects of DDT: Thomas Jukes, Charles Wurster, and the Fate of an Environmental Pollutant

Abstract

The massive expansion of the chemical industry following World War II promised virtually unlimited improvements in everyday life. "Better Living Through Chemistry" was a marketing slogan that went virtually unchallenged throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Yet, by the end of the 1960s, the perceptions of the synthetic world that our massive chemical industry had created had fundamentally changed. By the first Earth Day in the spring of 1970, the use of Dow's chemical defoliants and napalm, the experience with thalidomide, and, of course, the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring profoundly undermined scientists' and the public's belief in the unchecked benefits of scores of chemicals. This brief but startling article by Conis provides us with insight into the rapidly evolving and transformative debates regarding the safety of synthetic materials, environmentalism, chronic disease, genetic damage, and low-level exposures during the 1960s and early 1970s. It also gives us an understanding of the current debates regarding the precautionary principle, low-level exposures and their relationships to human health, the concept of the threshold level, and the uncertainty involved in environmental research. As this article illustrates, perhaps the most critical and paradigmatic arguments occurred-and are still occurring-over the unbridled use of pesticides, particularly dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.

Association between Exposure to p,p ′-DDT and Its Metabolite p,p ′-DDE with Obesity: Integrated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…We integrated different streams of evidence from human, primary in vivo , and secondary in vivo and in vitro studies, and determined that each provides a moderate level of evidence supporting our conclusion that DDT and DDE exposures during the developmental period can be classified as “presumed” human obesogens. This is essential to inform decisions in the ongoing cost–benefit debate of the continued use of DDT as an insecticide ( Conis 2010 ). Further, this study also highlights metabolic disruption triggered by environmental pollutants as a novel end point to be considered in risk assessment frameworks.…”

Factors responsible for the emergence of arboviruses; strategies, challenges and limitations for their control

“…This would have a catastrophic impact on the survival of many wildlife species, as first became apparent when dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane was used widely as a general insect control agent rather than being precisely targeted to relevant mosquito species. 55 However, implementation of temporary localized arthropod control measures during epidemics, for example in high density urbanized areas, can still play an important but transient role in reducing the impact on humans and animals of emerging arboviruses.…”

Genome-Wide Sequencing and an Open Reading Frame Analysis of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) Susceptible (91-C) and Resistant (91-R) Drosophila melanogaster Laboratory Populations

“…Subsequent deleterious side effects arose in non-target mammalian and avian species that were linked to the environmental persistence of this insecticide [3] , and contributed to usage bans in most countries during the modern environmental movement [4] , [5] . However, DDT remains in industrial production due to its continued use for the control of malaria vectoring insects [6] , and still persists in many ecosystems where it has been associated with negative effects on human health [7] , [8] , [9] . Despite the elimination of selection pressures in many nations, resistance traits persist within endemic pest populations and may remain at high frequencies due to random genetic drift on alleles that have no fitness cost [10] .…”