A useful history - even if it does not go into the health impact of using DDT.
from http://www.columbia.edu/~dh492/ddt/history.html.
A Pro-DDT history of the Pesticide
DDT = Dichloro Diphenyl Tricholoroethane
DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane)
was first synthesized in 1874 by Othmar Ziedler, a German chemist, who had synthesized
the compound as part of his work on the substitution products of aromatic hydrocarbon
compounds. However a practical use for this chemical was not found until
the late 1930’s, when Paul Muller and his research group at Geigy Pharmaceuticals
in Switzerland attempted to use DDT against potato beetles and clothes moths.
Muller’s group had found DDT’s insecticidal properties to be amazing
and in 1948 Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for
the “true” discovery of DDT. But one may still raise the question,
how did DDT usage become so rampant?
With the
United States entering a two front war in the winter of 1941 many health issues
had to be addressed. One of the most important issues was how to protect
American troops from airborne diseases. Learning its lesson from World
War I, a war in which more troops died from disease then combat, the Committee
on Medical Research made it the utmost priority to find a cheap, and effective
method to combat airborne disease. Troops fighting in Europe and Africa
were exposed to typhus as soldiers in the South Pacific were exposed to malaria
and other tropical diseases that were carried by the mosquito. In addition
to protecting troops the committee was also focused on prevention outbreaks
of diseases on dislocated civilian populations, in short they did not want diseases
to spread behind allied lines. However there was little hope in finding
a solution with the chemicals available at the time.
However in
1942 when representatives from the Swiss pharmaceutical firm J.R. Geigy Company
brought samples of a new insecticide to the Department of Agriculture under
the trade name “Gasarol” the answer was found. H.L. Haller,
member of the Division of Insecticide Investigation, isolated the active compound
in “Gasarol” to be 1,1,1 trichloro – 2,2bis (parachlorophenyl)ethane,
more commonly known as Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT. Immediately
studies were done in 1942 and 1943 to test the effectiveness of DDT, confirmed
to be a cheap, effective insecticide investigations were done to see the chemicals
toxicity and accumulation in the body. The Committee on Medical Research
gathered health experts around the nation from the NIH, FDA, Public Health Service,
Armed Forces medical corps, Kettering Laboratories and other organizations to
create a program in which they could test the chronic toxicity and the persistence
and accumulation of DDT in the body. However their main objective was
the immediate safety of those who would be handling and spraying the chemicals,
as well as those who would be directly exposed[i].
With this
limited aspect being the scope of the program, results could not have been better.
DDT was found to have a very low acute toxicity to humans. Believing that
they now had the ultimate weapon in the middle of 1944 the U.S. armed forces
began to make DDT the standard insecticide to use in the battle against disease.
The DDT era had now begun. In less then half a year, toward the end of
1944 American manufacturers were creating approximately 2 million pounds of
DDT per month for military use. As good as the results were in the lab,
the effectiveness of DDT in the field was still questionable.
DDT’s success
With nearly
3 million pounds being produced per month, DDT was still just an average insecticide,
it did not become “the magic bullet” in disease control until the
Naples typhus epidemic of 1943 – 1944. A few cases had exploded into
an epidemic and American and British occupation forces in their attempts to
control the outbreak used a variety of new methods as well as multiple insecticides
to kill the lice that spread the disease. When the outbreak was
over in February of 1944 it was an amazing story. For this was the first
time in history that a typhus epidemic had been arrested by public health measures.
When the media inquired about the means in achieving this, DDT received the
credit. However the truth of the matter was that DDT had only become available
for use only toward the end of the epidemic, after the new control methods and
insecticides had initially contained the epidemic. Truth during war however,
at times was not really the full truth. Newspapers across the globe hailed
the wonders of the new amazing chemical known as DDT, saying that it would revolutionize
public health.
DDT’s
true success came in the South Pacific when used for malaria control.
The military, using converted transport planes and bombers, sprayed entire with
a new liquid solution of DDT. The ability to blanket areas that
were inaccessible to ground spraying proved to be what DDT needed to become
the miracle insecticide. Not only was it simple to convert DDT into an
aerial spray, but also its liberal use over allied lines showed little or no
symptoms of poisoning among troops. These wartime programs were
critical in enhancing DDT’s reputation and providing a body of equipment
as well as knowledge for peacetime use. With a pair of blinders, propaganda,
coincidence and a little bit of luck DDT within a year grew to be the most heralded
chemical insecticide, one that would save the world.
On August 1, 1945 DDT was released for general civilian use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] Edward F. Knipling, “DDT insecticides Developed for Use by the Armed
Forces,” 205
Note by Janine Roberts - in fact there were outbreaks of polio among the US troops sprayed with DDT - see polio articles and other sources on this website-and even the report from Jonas Salk - the developer of the polio vaccine.
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