{"id":2983,"date":"2011-09-21T11:41:31","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T01:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=2983"},"modified":"2012-03-21T09:29:21","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T22:29:21","slug":"ddt-still-found-in-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/science\/ddt-still-found-in-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"DDT still found in humans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

DDT was originally banned because of its effects on wildlife, particularly bird species. Image: Laura Boness<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

DDT\u00a0has been found in human breast milk, despite being banned in 1972.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is an organochlorine that was once widely used as an insecticide. Its use in agriculture was banned nearly 30 years ago, after it was suggested to cause cancer and have a detrimental effect on wildlife.<\/p>\n

146 samples of human breast milk have been chemically analysed and found to contain a number of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), most of which belonged to the DDT group. Dioxins, other organochlorins and banned pesticides which were once widely used in agriculture were also present.<\/p>\n

According to Professor Tze Wai Wong of The Chinese University of Hong Kong<\/a>, the presence of DDT suggests that it might still be used as an illegal pesticide- which is hard to prove- or the residual levels in the soil are so high that, despite the ban, DDT is present in substantial quantities and entering the food chain.<\/p>\n

“Don’t forget that DDT has a very long half-life, and can therefore be present in the soil for a long time,”\u009d said Professor Wong told the CleanUp 2011 Conference<\/a> in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

DDT is classified as a Group 2B carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer<\/a>, so it is a “\u02dcpossible’ carcinogen for humans. “There is insufficient evidence of human carcinogenicity, but sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals,”\u009d Professor Wong said.<\/p>\n

Human intake of DDT and other POPs is not confined to the Asia-Pacific, but can be found worldwide. It occurs through the consumption of contaminated food products from places with heavily polluted soil and water, and from contaminated air, which allows dioxins to enter the human body.<\/p>\n

Professor Wong explained that a community’s diet, methods of waste disposal and level of industrialisation may also contribute to its intake of POPs. For example, countries that incinerate waste are more susceptible to dioxin contamination, which can be released through burning.<\/p>\n

DDT has also been used medically to control malaria and body louse and is deemed to be safe for humans who have received external treatment of DDT. However, as a toxic chemical, a small amount of DDT absorbed into the body may accumulate and affect the body in various ways.<\/p>\n

“The effect of DDT on health through intake of low levels, however, is not certain,”\u009d Professor Wong said. “There is inconclusive evidence of growth, mental and psychomotor development development, and its effect on immunity and infection in children.”\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DDT\u00a0has been found in human breast milk, despite being banned in 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology","category-health","category-science"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2983"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2983\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}