1874 as Othmar Zeidler\'s Graduate

¶ … 1874 as Othmar Zeidler's graduate school project, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was not initially invented for use as a pesticide. However, in 1939, Paul Herman Muller synthesized the chlorinated hydrocarbon specifically for use as a pesticide and thus was born one of the most monstrous chemicals ever used in agriculture. Muller experimented with DDT not only on crops but also on human beings, applying the toxic substance to war refugees for their lice (Davis nd). Because DDT appeared to kill insects on contact but not human beings, the substance was deemed a miraculous success and brought quickly to market. During World War Two, DDT was used for the "control of vector-borne diseases such as typhus and malaria," according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 1975). Other contagious diseases like yellow fever were also believed to respond to DDT ("DDT: An Introduction"). Its "reasonable cost, effectiveness, persistence, and versatility" made DDT seem to be a boon for civilization during the first half of the twentieth century (EPA 1975). Dr. Muller won the Nobel Prize for medicine because of his discoveries.

DDT tremendously changed society during the twentieth century and especially during the latter half. Because of its dramatic effect on killing insects, DDT was dubbed "the 'atomic bomb' of pesticides," ("DDT: An Introduction"). After its use during World War Two in attempting to stop the spread of disease, DDT was applied almost exclusively to agro-business crops. One of the most notable impacts of DDT was on the twentieth century marketplace: the chemical proved extremely lucrative. Well over a billion pounds of the substance was used in the United States alone prior to the ban on DDT in 1972. DDT changed the way the agriculture industry operated: switching the production of crops from smaller farms to larger ones that were aided by DDT and other pesticides in producing massive amounts of surplus. The agro-businesses not only altered landscapes in America but also the labor models of farming. Moreover, DDT would leave a horrific legacy as the precursor to seemingly safer chemical-based pesticides. DDT promised a world in which crops would grow unfettered by bugs and rodents. A bug-free world is of course a fantasy, one that has led to dangerous levels of toxins in drinking water and soils and also to changes in local flora, fauna, and whole ecosystems. Because DDT is still widely used in much of the developing world, its effects remain extant even though the United States and other nations have prohibited the manufacturing of the chemical.