![]() ![]() At the same time, most studies conducted since the ban have typically failed to establish a link between exposure to DDT and human cancer. Numerous chemical substitutes for DDT have been developed over the years, but few are as cheap or effective at controlling malaria as DDT. ![]() In the early 1970s, DDT was banned for virtually all uses in the United States and in many other countries around the world. Reacting to a growing fear of pesticides, some suspected a link to human cancer. Although DDT was highly effective in reducing the incidence of malaria, scientists began to suspect it was damaging to the environment, specifically to birds of prey in which the DDT metabolite DDE caused thinning of eggshells. The findings come at a time when DDT is once again being promoted as a tool to combat malaria.ĭDT was widely used as a pesticide in the United States and elsewhere beginning in the mid-1940s. Now researchers have found new evidence potentially linking DDT with breast cancer in women. Subsequent studies, including a meta-analysis published in EHP, downplayed the connection. Author Rachel Carson made the initial claim in her 1962 best-seller Silent Spring. ![]()
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