DDT Warning

The extraordinary new insecticide DDT is not without drawbacks. Last week doctors of the U.S. Public Health Service issued a warning (confirming some previous reports--TIME, June 12) that DDT may be toxic to people and animals as well as insects.

Fed to laboratory animals in small doses, DDT produced poisoning symptoms like those from carbolic acid. It excited the animals' central nervous system, gave them the shivers, paralyzed their feet, finally killed some of them. The poison was cumulative.

The investigators also found that DDT can be absorbed through the skin. But in the diluted, powdered form in which DDT is usually used, it does not seem to be harmful: despite its wide use as a debusing powder in the war theaters, no case of DDT poisoning has yet been reported. The doctors' conclusion: DDT is "a definite health hazard," should be used with care.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.