On the etiology of tropical epidemic neuropathies.

Dr. Matteson claims that DDT is associated with reduced lactation. In the United States, where DDT has been banned for 26 years, mothers who stay home breast-feed for an average of 25.1 weeks—mothers who work parttime, for 22.5 weeks (19). In Belize, mothers in urban areas, where DDT is not used for malaria control, breast-feed less than 38.4 weeks—mothers in rural areas with lifetime exposures to DDT breast-feed more than 57.2 weeks (20). The World Wildlife Fund’s mass balance model of DDT sprayed in houses used to refute our assessment that DDT does not readily move away from sprayed houses also mentions that “There are few...data against which to validate the results of this...model, although actual data...should not be difficult to obtain.” (21). Studies of DDT use in agriculture show that most DDT settles where it is applied (22). Studies have shown no meaningful population-based adverse health effects from DDT use, despite more than 50 years’ exposure, and evidence argues forcefully that DDT does not cause breast cancer (23).