DDT’s ‘High Blood Pressure Threat’ Lives 40 Years On

Exposure to a pesticide banned for more than a generation is still threatening to ruin the lives of millions of women in the US today, a new scientific study has found.

Women who were exposed in the womb to DDT – an insect control repellant used widespread across the US until its use was stopped in 1972 – were found to have an increased risk of developing high blood pressure before reaching 50.

Millions breathed in DDT for over 30 years until the chemical compound was found to be a likely carcinogen that damages the liver, nervous system and the reproductive system.

The study offers a disturbingly grim postscript to that era – the adult daughters of women who were pregnant at the time are at a greater risk for hypertension. It also offers fresh health concerns to people in and around DDT’s 21st century new battlegrounds – in Africa and Asia where it is used to combat malaria-carrying mosquitoes. >

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