Reproductive outcomes following environmental exposure to DDT.
We used official statistics of births and stillbirths in 1945-1954 to evaluate reproductive outcomes in the general population following use of DDT during a 1946-1950 anti-malarial campaign in the Italian region of Sardinia. Due to the disruption of registration systems in the World War II years, data in the pre-DDT years were available only for 1945-1946. Such a short period of observation, and social conditions in the war and post-war years, do not allow exclusion of adverse effects of DDT on birth rate; however, we did not observe an effect. The stillbirth rate, infant mortality rate, and male/female ratio in newborns were apparently unaffected following widespread but focused use of DDT in Sardinia, Italy.
Cocco
Pierluigi
P
Department of Public Health, Occupational Health Section, University of Cagliari, Via San Giorgio 12, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. coccop@pacs.unica.it
Fadda
Domenica
D
Melis
Massimo
M
D001723:Birth Rate / Q000639:trends; D003634:DDT / Q000506:poisoning*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000639:trends; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012744:Sex Ratio; D050497:Stillbirth / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors
D003634:DDT