This Day in History: 1972-12-31

DDT banned in the US A ban on general use of the pesticide DDT takes effect on this day in 1972 in the United States. According to the EPA, an end to the continued domestic usage of the pesticide was decreed on June 14, 1972, when William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, issued an order finally cancelling nearly all remaining Federal registrations of DDT products. Public health, quarantine, and a few minor crop uses were excepted, as well as export of the material. About 675,000 tons of DDT were applied in the US up until 1972, but use was declining from 80 million pounds (in 1959) to 13 million pounds (in 1971) due to increased insect resistance, development of more effective alternative pesticides, growing public and user concern over adverse environmental side effects.