--- title: DDT Breast Cancer: Mother's Exposure Linked to Disease description: Women previously exposed to the pesticide DDT while in utero face increased risk of breast cancer later in life, according to new research. canonical: https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-16T20:37:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:53.404Z article:section: Health og:title: DDT Exposure During Pregnancy Linked To Breast Cancer og:description: Women previously exposed to the pesticide DDT while in utero face increased risk of breast cancer later in life, according to new research. og:url: https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf214f7e0146df25/698854c5f887dc3a40e90f2f/ddt-pesticide.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3949 og:image:height: 2221 og:image:alt: DDT Pesticide og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: DDT Exposure During Pregnancy Linked To Breast Cancer twitter:description: Women previously exposed to the pesticide DDT while in utero face increased risk of breast cancer later in life, according to new research. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf214f7e0146df25/698854c5f887dc3a40e90f2f/ddt-pesticide.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # DDT Exposure During Pregnancy Linked To Breast Cancer > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel' [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QjM5tV3h.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2012-10-09. Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? TIME explains the ins and out of Obamacare's 'Health Panel'_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2015 8:37 PM UTC  Collection of pesticides, including DDT, that were still in use by some farmers in the 1970's. Photo was taken at a Kansas farm in 1976. Collection of pesticides, including DDT, that were still in use by some farmers in the 1970's. Photo was taken at a Kansas farm in 1976. Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jun 16, 2015 8:37 PM UTC Women who had been exposed to higher levels of the pesticide DDT while in utero face increased risk of breast cancer later in life than those who were exposed to lower levels, according to new [research](http://press.endocrine.org/doi/10.1210/jc.2015-1841). Researchers evaluated 54 years of data from women starting from the time they were in utero. Out of 9,300 women who had been tracked from even before birth, the study authors identified 118 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Women whose mothers had been exposed to significant levels of DDT during pregnancy were four times as likely to have had breast cancer as their counterparts who had been exposed to a small quantity of the pesticide, according to the findings. The research, published in the _Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism_, shows “direct evidence” that higher DDT exposure in utero places women at increased risk of breast cancer, said study author Barbara Cohn, PhD, a researcher at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, CA, in a press release. “Environmental chemicals have long been suspected causes of breast cancer, but until now, there have been few human studies to support this idea,” she said. The United States has banned DDT, one of the first known endocrine disruptors, since the 1970s. Still, many potentially affected women who were born that era are just reaching the age when they are at increased risk for breast cancer. Despite research that has found many health risks of DDT—the pesticide has been linked to [Alzheimer’s disease](http://healthland.time.com/2014/01/28/study-ddt-pesticide-linked-to-alzheimers-disease/), [obesity, and kidney and ovarian diseases](http://time.com/3028766/pesticide-exposure-diseases-obesity/)—some countries still use the chemical to fight malaria. The study authors say policymakers should consider the study as they evaluate whether to continue using DDT. ## Transcript Republicans keep saying that one thing that Obamacare will do is put government bureaucrats in charge of your healthcare instead of your doctor. Here's what you need to know. [ MUSIC ] A board of people at the government, an unelected board, appointed board, who are gonna decide what kind of treatments you ought have. The board that Romney is talking about is actually called the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the reason that it's important is because it affects Medicare. Medicare spending every year just keeps going up and up and up, and, under Obamacare, there are certain thresholds under which Medicare spending has to stay. If spending goes beyond those thresholds, this board will make recommendations to Congress about how much certain payments to doctors should be cut. If Congress doesn't like what the board recommends, Congress can come up with it's own recommendations for how to keep Medicare spending under control. But, if there's political gridlock and politicians and Congress can't agree on anything, the board's recommendations automatically become law. So the board will be made up of 15 different members. Many of them from the healthcare community and, while they are unelected and appointed by the President, they have to be confirmed by the Senate. Members of the board are, in theory, supposed to represent different factions within the healthcare community. Doctors, policy folks, people that represent payers, which are generally insurance companies. The recommendations that the board will make have to do with how much doctors and hospitals will get paid for providing services to Medicare beneficiaries. The board can't recommend that certain treatments won't be covered and it doesn't make decisions based on individual patient situations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/"},"headline":"DDT Exposure During Pregnancy Linked To Breast Cancer","datePublished":"2015-06-16T20:37:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:53.404Z","description":"DDT has previously been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, obesity and kidney and ovarian diseases","url":"https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/","keywords":["toxins","Breast Cancer","Pesticides"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf214f7e0146df25/698854c5f887dc3a40e90f2f/ddt-pesticide.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbf214f7e0146df25/698854c5f887dc3a40e90f2f/ddt-pesticide.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DDT Pesticide","caption":"DDT Pesticide","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/toxins/","name":"toxins"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3923291/ddt-pregnancy-breast-cancer/","name":"DDT Exposure During Pregnancy Linked To Breast Cancer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Explains: Obamacare's 'Health Panel'","description":"Will there be an unelected, appointed board deciding your treatment under the ACA? 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