Issues Associated with the Use of DDT
The invention of DDT by the Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller was originally seen as one of the greatest advances in medicine during the twentieth century. Toward the end of World War II, the disease typhus (transmitted by lice) threatened 1.3 million Allied troops. This is the same disease that totally wiped out Napoleon's Grand Army on its retreat from Russia in the 1800s. The application of DDT com- pletely removed the typhus threat. DDT proved so successful in con- trolling insect infestations that Paul Müller was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."
In the 1950s it was hoped that DDT would prove equally effective in stamping out malaria. Each year, this mosquito-transmitted disease affects over 120 million people and is responsible for over 1 million deaths. In the next investigation, you will explore the scientific basis for explaining unforeseen consequences of introducing DDT into the environment.
¿Para qué se utilizó originalmente el DDT?