Menu

In the News

LA Times Spotlights PHI Research on Health Consequences of Toxic Chemicals

A recent article from the Los Angeles Times highlights critical and groundbreaking research from PHI’s Child Health and Development Studies program on the generational and harmful impact of DDT on women’s health. Rosanna Xia, environmental reporter, draws the connection of this research to other emerging research on the health impacts of DDT on wildlife.

under ocean water

When Christopher Tubbs joined an ambitious multinational effort to save California condors from the brink of extinction, he knew the odds of success were long. There were wind turbines that could strike the giant birds and lead bullet fragments in hunted animals that could sicken and kill.

But Tubbs, who studies hormone-disrupting chemicals, suspected there was yet another threat to condor survival — a particularly problematic pesticide dumped decades ago off California’s coast.

Now, after years of study, Tubbs and a team of environmental health scientists have identified more than 40 DDT-related compounds — along with a number of unknown chemicals — that have been circulating through the marine ecosystem and accumulating in this iconic bird at the very top of the food chain.

In a sophisticated chemical analysis published Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology, the team found that DDT-related chemicals were seven times more abundant in coastal condors than condors that fed farther inland. Looking at the birds’ coastal food sources, researchers found that dolphin and sea lion carcasses that washed ashore in Southern California were also seven times more contaminated with DDT than the marine mammals they analyzed along the Gulf of California in Mexico.

Significant amounts of DDT-related compounds are still accumulating in Southern California dolphins, and a recent study linked the presence of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane to an aggressive cancer in sea lions. Another study based in Oakland found that DDT’s hormone-disrupting effects are affecting a new generation of women — passed down from mothers to daughters, and now granddaughters.

Just because we banned DDT 50 years ago doesn’t mean it has gone away — especially in California, said Eunha Hoh, whose lab at San Diego State’s School of Public Health led the chemical analysis in the new condor study. If the California condor is accumulating such high amounts of DDT, that means that every link of the coastal food chain — including people — is also exposed.

Click below to read the full article. Read more about the DDT study from PHI.

 

Originally published by Los Angeles Times


More Updates

Work With Us

You change the world. We do the rest. Explore fiscal sponsorship at PHI.

Bring Your Work to PHI

Support Us

Together, we can accelerate our response to public health’s most critical issues.

Donate

Find Employment

Begin your career at the Public Health Institute.

See Jobs

Close

PHI's Top 24 Impacts for 2024

During 2024, PHI worked alongside our partners to advance public health research, policies, programs and interventions in communities around the globe. Explore some of our most impactful work in 2024—a collection of our top stories, tools, resources and ideas that helped to improve health, advance equity and build community power.

See the impacts

Continue to PHI.org