DDT

The U.S. tobacco industry, which has fended off a barrage of wrongful death and other product liability lawsuits without losing a case, put its perfect record on the line Tuesday in this rural Mississippi town. In a case that could be the industry's stiffest liability challenge ever, a state court jury began hearing a suit filed against American Tobacco Co. by survivors of a lung cancer victim who smoked its Pall Mall brand. The cancer victim was Nathan H.

Women heavily exposed to the pesticide DDT during childhood are five times as likely to develop breast cancer, a new scientific study suggests. For decades, scientists have tried to determine whether there is a connection between breast cancer and DDT, the most widely used insecticide in history.

Babies and toddlers of California farmworkers exposed to the insecticide DDT have neurological effects that are severe enough in some cases to slow their mental and physical development, according to research by UC Berkeley scientists published today. The federally funded research involving the children of women who recently emigrated from Mexico to the Salinas Valley is the first in the United States to indicate that the pesticide harms human brain development. "This suggests that ...

When researchers try to explain why a major new study hints at an improved coastal environment, they keep coming back to the fish. Fewer fish appear diseased, according to researchers who worked on a new study released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week. Livers of certain other sea creatures showed sharp decreases in DDT and PCB concentrations. The pollution-intolerant brittle star has become more abundant in sediments that were once heavily tainted with pollution.

Women who were exposed while still in the womb to the pesticide DDT are more likely to experience delays in getting pregnant, according to a study of California mothers and daughters published today in an international medical journal. The report by the Public Health Institute in Berkeley is the first scientific evidence that DDT that collects in women's bodies can affect their female offspring many years later, when they reach adulthood and attempt to reproduce.

For a quarter of a century, wildlife experts have been struggling to revive a breeding population of bald eagles on Santa Catalina Island that was wiped out by a massive deposit of DDT off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

DDT is making a comeback here. Concerns over environmental damage led to a ban on the pesticide in the U.S. in 1972 and subsequently in many parts of the world, including in several African nations. But now, some leaders in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania say the chemical, whose full name is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is their last hope to stem an epidemic that kills 1 million Africans annually: malaria. Although AIDS gets far more international attention, malaria is the No.

Along a stretch of South Kenwood Avenue, red banners cover some frontyard fences and shout in white letters: "Buy Us Out." This is not the usual real estate offer. The neighborhood in unincorporated Los Angeles--east of Torrance and south of Gardena--is locked in a struggle with the federal government over how to respond to the DDT ground contamination that environmental regulators say originated from a chemical plant three blocks away.

Levels of the banned pesticide DDT as much as 45 times higher than what is considered safe have been found behind two homes near Torrance, outraging residents who said Friday that they have been trying for years to get government agencies to pay more attention to toxic substances in their neighborhood. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency detected DDT levels of 254 parts per million in Cynthia Babich's yard on West 204th Street and 606 p.p.m. in her next-door neighbor's yard.

When researchers try to explain why a major new study hints at an improved coastal environment, they keep coming back to the fish. Fewer fish appear diseased, according to researchers who worked on a new study released by the Environmental Protection Agency this week. Livers of certain other sea creatures showed sharp decreases in DDT and PCB concentrations. The pollution-intolerant brittle star has become more abundant in sediments that were once heavily tainted with pollution.

A plan to cap a vast, long-neglected deposit of the pesticide DDT on the ocean floor off Southern California got its first public airing Tuesday -- nearly four decades after the poison was banned from use. The estimated $36-million proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls for a cover of sand and silt to be placed over the most contaminated part of the estimated 17-square-mile area declared a Superfund site in 1996.

Re "Remember DDT," editorial, Feb. 16 The Times editorial recommends prohibiting the pesticide carbofuran, and harks back to the great success of eliminating DDT, which caused a decrease in bird populations. Typical of radical environmentalism, the editorial fails to mention the other consequence of eliminating DDT, which was and is the death of hundreds of thousands of children in Africa because of malaria. DDT was by far the most effective insecticide for controlling mosquito-borne malaria, and with proper application would have saved lives with little effect on animal populations.

Women heavily exposed to the pesticide DDT during childhood are five times as likely to develop breast cancer, a new scientific study suggests. For decades, scientists have tried to determine whether there is a connection between breast cancer and DDT, the most widely used insecticide in history.

Santa Catalina Island is now home to two baby bald eagles, the first to successfully hatch there in more than 50 years without human help. And scientists overseeing the hatchings, which occurred over the weekend, say another eagle nest a few miles away has two more eggs that could produce young within the next 10 days.

Re "Waiting for the DDT tide to turn," Jan. 28 The Times continues to dish out questionable information about DDT to the American public. DDT has never been adequately linked to cancer of any form and has not been shown to be conclusively harmful to those who ingest it -- hence the "probable human carcinogen" label. Millions have died and continue to die from malaria because of the deceptive information put out on this topic. PHILLIP LYLE Irvine

Many fish caught off Los Angeles County still contain extremely high levels of DDT, a sign that anglers and consumers remain at risk and that the ocean's ecosystem may be far from recovery 35 years after the pesticide was banned. Newly released data from a federal survey indicate that fish caught in the area contained the world's highest-known DDT concentrations.

Babies and toddlers of California farmworkers exposed to the insecticide DDT have neurological effects that are severe enough in some cases to slow their mental and physical development, according to research by UC Berkeley scientists published today. The federally funded research involving the children of women who recently emigrated from Mexico to the Salinas Valley is the first in the United States to indicate that the pesticide harms human brain development. "This suggests that ...

Re "Malaria's Toll Fuels the Case for DDT Use in Africa," May 29 Malaria is a devastating health problem in Africa that is finally getting the international attention it deserves. Unfortunately, some want to bring back widespread use of DDT for malaria control -- a "silver bullet" approach that saved lives in the 1950s and '60s but stopped working as mosquitoes became resistant to the pesticide. Like most Africans, I do not want a toxic chemical known to cause cancer and low birth weights sprayed on my walls and contaminating the home where my children play.

DDT is making a comeback here. Concerns over environmental damage led to a ban on the pesticide in the U.S. in 1972 and subsequently in many parts of the world, including in several African nations. But now, some leaders in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania say the chemical, whose full name is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, is their last hope to stem an epidemic that kills 1 million Africans annually: malaria. Although AIDS gets far more international attention, malaria is the No.

Rejecting impassioned pleas from hundreds of nature lovers but giving them a glimmer of hope for the future, federal and state officials said Wednesday that they will stop funding reintroduction of bald eagles on Santa Catalina Island but would consider restarting the project after 2007.