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How the chemistry of DDT effects us.

Have you ever been driving down the road with the windows open going past a golf course or a field and then you get a strange smell? A chemical type of odor? Or go walking in the country and notice a large area, usually a field, all brown with dead grass. And next to it, alive green grasses and shrubs? Chances are you smell a herbicide being used or you are seeing what it can do to vegetation.

Then you start to wonder. Are those chemicals getting into the water table? Is wildlife eating the "treated" vegetation and insects tainted with the chemicals? Or maybe we are taking in the toxins and not even realizing it. It could possibly be in the foods we eat, the air we are breathing everyday or the water that we are drinking.

DDT is a colorless contact insecticide that is very toxic. It became banned in the early 1970's. Gaylord Nelson, a great environmentalist while in office in the state of Wisconsin diliengtly worked to get DDT banned in Wisconsin.

DDT even though restricted is still used in Mexico to control malaria. The National Institute of Public Health of Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico concluded from a study that the use of DDT has been linked to breast cancer in Mexico. In another chemistry study done by the University of Michigan, it was found that chemical factory workers that made DDT also had a high risk of pancreatic cancer from the overexposure of DDT. Unfortunately, DDT is still being manufactured and used in tropical areas for malaria control.

Below are some of the herbicides used today. This is not a complete listing of all of the herbicides on the market. The short term and long term side effects is based that the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) goes over a certain marker for parts per billion (ppb) in the water. For example Simazine is 4 ppb or 4 parts per billion in drinking water.

Simazine: Common Trade names: Herbazine, Herbex, Surflan General Uses: Corn Crops, Christmas Trees Amount Used Annually: 4.8 billion pounds estimated in 1985 Short Term health Effects: weight loss, changes in blood Long Term Health Effects: tremors, damage to testes, kidneys, liver, thyroid, cancer Ground Water Implications: It may leach to ground water. It can last from a few months to years. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Picloram: Common Trade names: Agent White, Tordon General Uses: Control annual weeds Amount Used Annually: 300,000 pounds estimated in 1982 Short Term health Effects: weight loss, damage to the nervous system Long Term Health Effects: liver damage Ground Water Implications: It may leach to ground water. It can last from a few months to years (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Glyphosate: Common Trade names: Roundup, Sonic, Rodeo, Tumbleweed, General Uses: Used on many food crops and roadsides Amount Used Annually: 18.7 million pounds recently Short Term health Effects: congestion of the lungs, increases breathing rate Long Term Health Effects: kidney damage, reproductive effects Ground Water Implications: It strongly adheres to the soil with little potential for leaching to ground water. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Endothall: Common Trade names:Accelerate, Endothall Turf Herbicide, Herbicide 273, General Uses: Used on many food crops and control aquatic weeds Amount Used Annually: 1.5 million pounds in 1982 Short Term health Effects: depressed breathing and increase heart rate Long Term Health Effects: increase size of some organs. Ground Water Implications: It can leach through the soil into the ground water. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Dinoseb: Common Trade names:Dow Selective Weed Killer, Hel-fire, Caldon, Knox-weed, Premerge, General Uses: used for cereal crops Amount Used Annually: 6.2 million pounds in 1982 Short Term health Effects: sweating, mood swings, headache Long Term Health Effects: decreased body and thyroid weight, degeneration of testes,. Ground Water Implications: It can leach through the soil into the ground water. Degrades very slowly. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Atrazine: Common Trade names:Aatex, Candex, Atred, Cyazin, Griffex Primatol, General Uses: used for corn and soybean crops Amount Used Annually: No figures are known, 2nd highest herbicide used Short Term health Effects: congestion of the heart, lungs, and kidneys, low blood pressure, muscle spasms, weight loss, damage to adrenal glands Long Term Health Effects: weight loss, cardiovascular damage, retinal and muscle degeneration, and cancer Ground Water Implications: It can leach through the soil into the ground water. Degrades very slowly. Very powerful herbicide. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Taking in consideration that municipalities have their water tested using chemistry methods on a regular basis, this does not take into account the urban and rural areas with its own private wells. Generally that is where a lot of herbicide is used for crops. Also in the city locations one has to take in account the air you breathe.


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