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Daughters of women exposed to DDT in the mid-1940's-1950's are tested for cancer.

1959

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RHRR

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is a synthetic insecticide first synthesized in 1874 by the Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler.

"DDT was initially used by the military in WWII to control malaria, typhus, body lice, and bubonic plague" (NPIC, 1999). It then became a commonly used pesticide in the United States.

The Public Health Institute's Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) begins following pregnant women in the Bay Area between 1959 and 1967, a time of high pesticide use before DDT is banned in 1972. Many of the women, who were believed to be exposed to DDT while in utero, will provide blood samples after each trimester while pregnant.

Other studies by the CHDS will show their "mothers' DDT exposure during pregnancy or immediately after birth correlates with increased daughters' risk of breast cancer and the prevalence of breast cancer risk factors, including obesity, among adult daughters. Other prior studies have linked DDT exposure to birth defects, reduced fertility and an increased risk of diabetes" (Public Health Institute, 2021).