February 4, 2023
I recently created a slideshow based on a groundbreaking research paper published in 2022, by a group of researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The NIEHS study explored connections between the infamous DDT pesticide and Alzheimer’s Disease. DDT is a synthetic pesticide that was developed in the 1940s for crop control and fighting insect-borne diseases. Though it was banned in the United States in 1972 due to its toxicity, it is known to linger persistently in the environment and human body, and exposure is still possible today through legacy contamination. Biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson famously wrote about the devastating environmental consequences of DDT use in her book Silent Spring. In the NIEHS study, researchers tested varying levels of DDT exposure on flies, mice, and human cells, and discovered the biological method by which it contributes to the overproduction of beta-amyloid proteins, which can cause Alzheimer’s by forming plaques in the brain. The next step for the researchers is to test therapeutic drugs based on this new information, which will ideally pave the way for improved treatments in people who have been exposed to the pesticide. This research is significant not only from a medicinal perspective, but also from an environmental perspective, because it serves as commentary on the risks that toxic pesticides pose to human and animal life.