[The influence on reproduction in rats of DDE mobilization induced by ethanol administration during pregnancy and...

The mobilization of xenobiotics is, in common with their persistence and accumulation, a latent problem of our chemicalized society. Possible sequels connected with the chronic consumption of alcohol were demonstrated by results from animal experiments. After a 10-week exposition to DDE (50 p.p.m. given with the diet), followed by a time of nonexposition, rats were mated and their reproductiveness was brought in relation to the results from residue analyses. Half of the animal received 20% alcohol instead of drinking water during pregnancy and lactation. An alcohol-induced increase in the mobilization of DDE was evidenced on determining residues in the maternal brain, the placentae and the foetus, and also by the excretion in milk and urine. There was a significance increase in prenatal and postnatal mortality (reduced survival index). By analogy to DDT, an oestrogenic action is assumed to be causative.