Environmental Estrogens

John A. McLachlan and Steven F. Arnold n many ways, the story of the pesticide DDT is the story of America's attitude toward synthetic chemicals in the environment. DDT was the first of many new pesticides that people hoped would improve the quality of their lives, but gradually it became clear that such progress often had a cost. DDT was one of the first environmental chemical agents to*be banned in the United States. Scientists are still seeking a full understanding of how it came to have broad and unexpected environmental and health effects. First synthesized in 1874, DDT took on its modern role in the late 1930s, when the Swiss chemist Paul Muller recognized its potential as an insecticide. It was perceived to be so beneficial for public health and military hygiene (mostly as a delousing agent), in fact, that Muller was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. In spite of occasional reports that stirred concern about potential health effects, it was used copiously in the