Nearly 60 Years After It Was Discontinued, DDT Found In New Brunswick Trout At 10X Safety Threshold

[hatrack]

Residues of the insecticide DDT have been found to persist at “alarming rates” in trout even after 70 years, potentially posing a significant danger to humans and wildlife that eat the fish, research has found. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, known as DDT, was used on forested land in New Brunswick, Canada, from 1952 to 1968. The researchers found traces of it remained in brook trout in some lakes, often at levels 10 times higher than the recommended safety threshold for wildlife.

“DDT is a probable carcinogen that we haven’t used in 70 years here [Canada], yet it’s abundant in fish and lake mud throughout much of the province at shockingly high levels,” said Josh Kurek, an associate professor in environmental change and aquatic biomonitoring at Mount Allison University in Canada and lead author of the research.

The research, published in the journal Plos One, discovered that DDT pollution covers about 50% of New Brunswick province. Brook trout is the most common wild fish caught in the region, and the research found DDT was present in its muscle tissue, in some cases 10 times above the recommended Canadian wildlife guidelines.

Researchers said DDT, which is classified by health authorities as a“probable carcinogen”, can persist in lake mud for decades after treatment and that many lakes in New Brunswick retain such high levels of legacy DDT that the sediments are a key source of pollution in the food web.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/21/banned-ddt-discovered-in-canadian-trout-70-years-after-use-research-finds

[marble falls]

1. Better Living Through Chemistry

Better Living Through Chemistry

The phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry" is a variant of a DuPont advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry." DuPont adopted it in 1935 and it was their slogan until 1982 when the "Through Chemistry" part was dropped. Since 1999, their slogan has been "The miracles of science". The phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry" was used on products that were not affiliated with DuPont to circumvent trademark infringement. Wikipedia


https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/x633f207n

[mopinko]

2. it was banned, but did that stop the use?

not disputing the story, but did it rly stop being used? ppl being ppl, i am sure the ban was not the complete end.

[dutch777]

3. Sad but not surprising, Chems got into the lake beds and are picked up by larvae and such fish feed on.

This is why we should be banning almost all plastics and other stuff that will be the same way for generations.