A prospective follow-up study of cancer mortality in relation to serum DDT

Serum DDT and DDE levels were measured in 919 subjects in 1974 and 1975. Two-hundred and nine of the subjects died, including 54 from cancer, during a 10-year prospective follow-up period. There was no relation between either overall mortality or cancer mortality and increasing serum DDT levels. There was weak evidence of a positive relation between respiratory cancer mortality and serum DDT. The literature on DDT and human cancer is reviewed, and it is concluded that the evidence does not support the opinion that DDT is a human carcinogen.