China's Pearl River tainted with DDT

The journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry has published a major report on China’s environmental health. Researchers detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, carcinogenic chemicals mainly produced from fossil fuel burning) in the Pearl River Delta in south China’s Guangdong Province. A study by Luo Xiaojun and colleagues at the Guangzhou Institute found residues of endocrine-disrupting organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the Delta. One of the detected OCPs was DDT. Although banned by China from agricultural uses in 1983, Luo’s study found high levels of DDT in surface water and sediments. "After long periods of decomposition, DDT residues should mainly exist in the form of its metabolite dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE)," Luo told Chemistry World. Luo stated that the discovery of high levels of DDT raises "the possibility of new DDT discharges." DDT is still found in oil-based paints and is used to make the chemically-related pesticide dicofol, which is mainly used on cotton. The report, "Environmental Science and Research in China: Snapshot of the Current State," was overseen by Tao Shu of the College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at Peking University and Eddy Zeng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry.