INVENTION OF DDT

1939

• First synthesized in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler

• Properties discovered in 1939 by Paul Herman Müller

• Used in second half of WWII to control malaria and typhus among troops

• Won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1948 "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."

• "The fact that he was accorded this honour even though he was neither a physician nor a medical researcher reflected the immense impact that DDT had had in the fight against human disease." - Wikipedia

• Nobel Committee said: "DDT has been used in large quantities in the evacuation of concentration camps, of prisons and deportees. Without any doubt, the material has already preserved the life and health of hundreds of thousands."