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(Wednesday, June 14, 1972) — DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), a widely used and well-known pesticide that experts say lodges in the food chain of humans, animals, birds, and fish, was banned today in the United States by order of Environmental Protection Agency Director William D. Ruckelshaus, with all use to cease by the end of 1972.
After almost three years of legal and administrative proceedings, reports by scientific bodies, and public hearings, Ruckelshaus declared in a 40-page decision that the continued use of DDT over the long term, except for limited public health uses, was an unacceptable risk to the environment and, very likely, to the health of humans.
“The evidence of record showing storage [of DDT] in man and magnification in the food chain,” he said, “is a warning to the prudent that man may be exposing himself to a substance that may ultimately have a serious effect on his health.”
Immediately after the announcement, both the Environmental Defense Fund and the DDT manufacturers filed suit against EPA.
Many in the agricultural community were concerned that food production would be severely impacted, while proponents of pesticides warned of increased breakouts of insect-borne diseases and questioned the accuracy of giving animals high amounts of pesticides for cancer potential.
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Industry sought to overturn the ban, while the EDF wanted a comprehensive ban. The cases were consolidated, and in 1973 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA had acted properly in banning DDT.
Opposition to DDT had come into focus after the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring. It talked about environmental impacts that correlated with the widespread use of DDT in agriculture in the United States, and it questioned the logic of broadcasting potentially dangerous chemicals into the environment with little prior investigation of their environmental and health effects.
The book cited claims that DDT and other pesticides caused cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. Although Carson never directly called for an outright ban on the use of DDT, its publication was a seminal event for the environmental movement and resulted in a large public outcry that eventually led to today’s ban on DDT’s agricultural use in the U.S.
A worldwide ban on agricultural use was formalized under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which has been in effect since 2004. DDT still has limited use in disease vector control because of its effectiveness in killing mosquitos and thus reducing malarial infections, but that use is controversial due to environmental and health concerns.
Along with the passage of the Endangered Species Act, the United States ban on DDT is a major factor in the comeback of the bald eagle (the national bird of the United States) and the peregrine falcon from near-extinction in the contiguous United States.
