Nearly everyone in the 1950s and 1960s was exposed to the pesticide, and its use continues in Africa. Three generations of women are involved in the research.
Source: DDT Linked to Fourfold Increase in Breast Cancer Risk
Women who were exposed to the pesticide during the 1950s and 1960s are just now reaching the age of heightened breast cancer risk.
“Everyone born during those years was exposed to DDT, so it’s possible that on the population level, DDT could be driving quite a lot of breast cancer risk,” says Julia Brody, executive director of the Silent Spring Institute, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit research group studying breast cancer and the environment.
