Researchers find pesticide hazardous to human health
When Rachel Carson published the novel Silent Spring in 1962, she warned that the pesticide dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane, or DDT, might have more long-term effects on the environment than killing insects.The pesticide, which had been produced in lots of 600 million pounds per year in the United States, was later banned in the country in the late 1970s.MSU researchers have found dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethene, or DDE - a metabolite of DDT - might have a long-term effect on human beings.Wilfried Karmaus, an associate professor of epidemiology, researched children in areas of Germany where the pesticide is still used, with the help of epidemiology graduate student Scott Asakevich.Many of the girls exposed to the pesticide were nearly an inch shorter than average.