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Updated: Aug 11, 2026
Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Reproductive outcomes following environmental exposure to DDT
Pierluigi Cocco1, Domenica Fadda, Massimo Melis
1Department of Public Health, Occupational Health Section, University of Cagliari, Via San Giorgio 12, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. coccop@pacs.unica.it
Abstract:
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.
