A study has shown that the use of DDT, an insecticide that has been banned in many places, can impact the epigenome of sperm.
Researchers based in Canada investigated blood and semen samples from 247 men living in South Africa, where DDT has been used on a special licence to tackle malaria, and 47 Inuit men living in Greenland, who eat fish with accumulated DDT, and discovered a dose-dependent effect. Results are published in Environmental Health Perspectives.